The politics of sports as a parent

Australia is a sporting nation, in fact, we just may be the sporting nation. We love our rugby, our tennis, our cricket, there’s rarely a sport we Aussies can’t put our name to, even if we aren’t the winners. We are a country who love to compete, and also brag about kicking the winning goal. For a small nation, we are pretty awesome at sport!

But as we get older, or more specifically as our children get older, we find ourselves more on the side lines as spectators instead of competitors. Kids’ sporting matches are a place where parents tend to find themselves getting more and more involved, and we’re not entirely sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing.

Our competitive nature takes over

Every parent loves to see their kids excel on the sporting fields. Whether it’s coming first place in the 800m, having a ferocious game of rugby or soccer, or cheering them on in netball, it’s always amazing to watch and is such a great way for the family to enjoy themselves. We love seeing their passions come alive, seeing them fall over and get back up without flinching and then hearing all about the game after through their eyes in vivid detail.

But there’s one thing we can’t deny, our excitement as parents tends to get a little too much at times. And this lends to the topic of sporting politics. We ultimately just want to see them do their best. But competitiveness can sometimes tip over to aggression and there’s always that one parent who simply takes it too far. We all know who they are, and sometimes you just want to tell them where to go, even though we don’t.

The problem however, especially as our children get older and the prospect of 1sts and 2nds (what team they will be in) comes into play, it’s not just the competition of the children that is encountered. Kids sports, oozes overbearing parenting at its maximum, and childish politics serves more than a few parents watching from the side lines. The politics of sports as a parent is almost unavoidable, regardless if your child is the star player, or the one standing at the back of the pack or sitting on the side lines. Sometimes it’s impossible not to get involved!

The politics of parenting

We hear from coaches and the team directors that they don’t believe in nepotism, or that there is no such thing as ‘favourites’: but is this really true? Can we really sit back and believe there is no individual motivation or ego in seeing their own team win? It’s all too often we see our children get caught in the middle of the win-at-any-cost mentality that has always been associated with school politics.

And this is where the politics of parenting, can become extremely tricky. Who wants to be the parent who embarrasses their child? But sometimes it gets all too much to sit back and relax. All parents are actively involved in their children’s sports. Because let’s face it, if it weren’t for their sports on Saturday mornings, we’d still be doing our own or going for that run around the park that we never actually do. And we’ve all witnessed a child sit on the on the bench most of the season because their skill perhaps isn’t as great as the others, but their effort equates.

This sense of parental politics can be exhausting. To not get involved sometimes is harder. To not have a go at the other parent. To not have a go at the referee or the coach. It can be very difficult to sit back and do nothing sometimes.

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