What are we doing to our kids? I mean really? I don’t know exactly when this whole “everybody wins“ mentality started, but it has to stop. We are creating a bunch of self-entitled kids who then grow up to be self-entitled adults. Kids cannot go through life thinking everything will be handed to them. They have to EARN it. The YMCA is completely supporting this ridiculous mentality.
We put our kids into sports for a few reasons, some being:
- They learn what it means to be on a team
- Physical fitness
- Learn the sport
- Gain a sense of competitiveness
I know some parents disagree with me on the competitiveness part and that’s the problem. But what parents don’t realize…our kids already know what it means to be competitive. That started when they were toddlers wanting to play games. They always wanted to win. So they are competing with the person they are playing with to beat them. And for some reason, when you are a toddler, that’s OK. However, when you are an older child, that’s not.
About Sports in the YMCA
Example…I signed my kids up for the local YMCA basketball program. My son played in this program the year before. Sure it had its issues, but every program does! However, at the first practice we find out that the rules of basketball were being changed this season. You are no longer allowed to steal the ball from someone.
Say what?
I know, it’s crazy. So now our kids are being taught that they can freely dribble the ball up the court without the worry of anyone stealing the ball away from them; without learning how to properly protect the ball from being stolen. How is this right? The kids on my sons team will be going to middle school in the next year or two. They are going to want to play on their middle school team. Only there’s a big problem…THEY WON’T BE PREPARED.
So I contacted the local YMCA through Facebook and here is their response (you can see the full discussion by going here):
Leah, sorry to hear of your frustration with the recent rule changes. We conducted a program survey after the last session of basketball and the rule change was made to appease the overwhelming majority of parent feedback. We strive to offer our programming based on the community’s needs. Our feedback made it apparent that there needed to be some adjustments made to our program. Please contact the Plymouth Y office if you have any other questions regarding our basketball program.
What he’s saying is, a group of parents didn’t like that their kids were unable to protect the ball (maybe the coach should have gone over that more???), they complained about it through a survey that I don’t remember taking, and they got their way. They got their way JUST so it is “fair” for their kids.
The kids are not the problem here. The parents are. This “everybody wins” mentality has created a disastrous generation of kids who will grow up not knowing what it truly means to work for something. They are going to graduate college thinking a job will be there waiting for them. They are going to think promotions are handed out for just showing up to work everyday. Unless we change our way of thinking.
This is political correctness gone wrong people. Sometimes you just have to look your kids in the face and tell them that there are winners and there are losers in life; tell them that if they work hard and try again, maybe there will be a different result next time. But the keywords here are: work, hard and maybe. They need to learn that not everyone is good at everything, but there is something out there for them that they are good at…they just have to find it. But they need to find it by not ruining things for other people.
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