It's an important issue, however. I see these negative parents falling into two categories: parents who absolutely do not want their children involved in sports and parents who over-involve themselves in their child's sports career. Personally, I'm much more familiar with the second type of parent: the pushy parent who knows more than every coach and who sees dollar signs whenever their kid steps on a playing field. (Admittedly, I walk a tightrope here myself.)
Having watched my dad, the football coach, deal with all kinds of parents, my philosophy has become let the kids have fun. One of my favorite Flintstones episodes has Fred taking the Bedrock kiddie baseball team to a private sandlot for their games because too many adults had become overly involved. "The game is for the kids," Fred says, "Let them play."
For both types of parents, there are two simple truisms: First, your child will have interests that don't interest you, and second, your child can't always be the star. Both of those truisms hurt, no matter where you stand.
As I write this, I realize that not all parents who are negative against sports don't want their child to play. It's that they don't want their child to play a specific sport. I've been down that road. I've decided that my son is not going to wrestle - at least not at age 10. There are issues with the sport that I don't agree with and that I don't want my son involved with. But should it be my decision? I'm not sure. I think this is where the child and parent need to respect each other and seriously discuss both sides of the story. In my case with wrestling, my opinions come from growing up in a wrestling-mad school district and seeing the lives of wrestlers first-hand. But had my son wanted to wrestle, I would have listened to him and his reasons. I also would have made him think about it for a while, to make sure it was truly his interest, not a follow-a-leader situation. Mutual respect is the key. A parent needs to listen and understand why their child wants to become involved in a particular sport, while the child needs to listen to the parents' point of view. The approach should not be, "I never will allow you to play this sport," but "Here's why I feel uncomfortable about you playing this sport."
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