- Image via Wikipedia
The time has come. Whether you’re excitedly nervous, or simply dreading it altogether, your child is getting ready to play in his first organized sport. Many communities offer organized sports activities anywhere from slow-pitch softball to competitive football. In some areas, there are even awards and trophies presented for the best teams participating.
Organized sports are of course a lot of fun, and very exciting. However, as the parent of the child who is going to be participating, it’s also going to take some organizing for you to get ready too. There may be demanding practice times, lengthy practices, buying additional equipment and even possibly additional training for the child outside of the sport activity in order to get your child ready to play.
Before deciding to sign your child up to play anything, make sure that he (and you) understand the time commitment that you’ll both be making. Will it interfere with homework? Will you need to take off work earlier to get him to practices? Are they mature enough to handle the sport, and do they understand wins and losses?
Once that’s settled and you’re ready to begin, it’s time to let the games begin! Whatever sport your child is playing in, allow it to become a teaching mechanism for other areas in his life:
- Sports teach discipline. They may not always get a "turn", so they have to learn to wait.
- Sports teach sharing, and allowing others to "shine" when necessary.
- Sports teach teamwork and commitment. They will learn to work together with others to achieve a common goal.
- Sports teach fortitude. They will learn that every time something is hard or challenging to do, they can’t and shouldn’t give up.
In the end, your child will appreciate all of their hard work. They’ll hopefully learn to love sports and its multiple benefits.
