In this week’s vlog segment, I explore the importance of the messages you send to your young athletes. I believe that “your children become the messages you get the most.” You want to make sure that the messages you send to them will encourage them to enjoy their sports participation, perform their best, achieve their athletic [...]
Some time ago, I shared with you my list of Dos for Sport Parents. In general, I much prefer to focus on the positives of behavior and, in that article, emphasized what parents can do to help their young athletes achieve their goals and have a great experience in their sport. At the same time, [...]
In this week's vlog segment, I turn our attention to what parents can do to support the healthy development of their children as athletes and as young people. I focus on the essential topic of how to build self-esteem in your young athletes. Self-esteem involves how children come to view themselves and whether they feel [...]
I came across this great article that should challenge all parents to ask themselves whether they are preparing their children for life in the "real world." The article focuses on the reason why so many kids are so easily bored, impatient, frustrated, and struggling socially these days. She provides some spot-on, though somewhat painful, explanations [...]
I come to this article from two directions. First, as a sport psychologist who has worked ski racers and their parents for decades. There is no doubt that my experiences in helping racers to achieve their goals and assisting parents in best supporting their children has informed my ideas here. At the same time, perhaps [...]
You have probably already heard about the research that found that children spend as much as 7.5 hours a day on non-school-related media. That is a crazy amount of time spent in front of a screen if you do the math of having 24 hours in a day, about 8 hours of sleep, and another [...]
Just a quick note that my latest parenting book, Raising Generation Tech: Preparing Your Children for a Media-Fueled World, is now available as an e-book for only $2.99 from all of your online booksellers. It is a great read for parents who are struggling with when and how much technology you should allow your children [...]
Setting expectations for your children is an essential responsibility of being a sport parent. Expectations communicate messages to your children about what’s important to you and establish a standard toward which they can strive. But expectations can be double-edged swords. They can be a tremendous benefit to your children’s athletic and personal development or they [...]
As any sports parent knows, it’s often a challenge to get your kids to the practice field, court, course, hill, or what-have you every day on time and ready to go. I admit that I can be a bit of a taskmaster with my own kids (who’s main sport is ski racing) on those days [...]
The conclusion of a sports season can be a time of excitement, relief, and suffering for parents of athletes. The excitement comes when your young athletes have just concluded a season that exceeded their (and your) expectations. The sense of pride and satisfaction can be palatable and reinforces why you have your children involved in [...]
