If your child is a gifted athlete, cockiness will become
very a tempting behavior. The coaches will tell him he is good. The paper will
tell him he is good. The local TV will tell him he is good. His friends will
tell him he is good. The teachers will tell him he is good. And YOU will tell
him he is good.
And that’s all good.
But that’s a lot for a kid to take in without succumbing
to cockiness. That’s why God gave parents to kids. It’s our job to keep them
humble. And here’s how you can do just that:
Model humility. It always starts
with what YOU do.
Teach that there is no “i” in team. No matter
how good your kid is, they cannot do it alone. Period.
Show no special treatment. By parents or by
teachers. Athletes should be held to same standards as non-athletes, not given
favors.
Remind them of their responsibility as leaders. Other
kids look up to athletes. It comes with the territory of being athletic.
Whether or not they like that, it’s a fact. And because of that, they need to
take that responsibility seriously.
Offer them balance. When your kids play
sports, it’s very tempting for sports to take over the entire household. But
that can cause sports burnout. Instead, advocate balance. Let them grow in
other areas of life–other interests, hobbies, adventures.
Praise them and their teammates. Recognize
your child’s hard efforts, and point out the hard work of their teammates. This
is just another way of instilling the no-I-in-team mentality.
Don’t support the “victim” mentality. According
to your kid, there will always be someone else to blame. A blind ref. Selfish
teammates. Even the stupid coach. Don’t feed that in your kid. Because
unfortunately, that victim mentality will spill over into other areas of his
life. Very unattractive.
Teach respect for coaches, teammates, refs. This
is the hard part. There are coaches who are clueless, teammates who are selfish
and obnoxious, and refs who are incompetent. It’s hard to respect them. But we
must tell our kids to respect them as human beings, even if we don’t like the
way they do their jobs. It all starts at home, folks. Our kids are like
sponges; they will drip out what they soak up. What are you pouring into your
kids? Are you teaching them to respect others?
