If your child has joined a sports team, usually at their school, then you want to make sure that you're giving them all the support they need. After all, it's a chance for them to attain something that's important to them other than school work, to broaden their horizons, and to live a healthier lifestyle. How do you make sure that you support their team within your bounds as a parent and without taking things too far?
Help them schedule it into their lives
Children have busy lives, and even when it seems like they might not have a lot scheduled, it's easy to forget or neglect responsibilities when your attention is constantly shifting as it does often when we are at a younger age. You can help your child create a daily routine and encourage them to stick to it so that they're able to make time for practice at home, attend practice sessions, and spend whatever else time is necessary to fit sport into their lives.
See if the team needs help
Lending your time and even occasionally making donations to the team can be a great way to show that you're behind your child and to make it a lot easier for the coach or school to actually keep the team running and give it the attention and care that it needs. This might mean chaperoning with the coach for trips to away games, it might mean helping design pe kits online, it could just mean helping bring some supplies to games like hydration for the kids. Talk to the coach about what you could do to make their lives a little easier.
Stay informed
The sporting year can see a lot of things change. Travel plans might come up, your child might need gear, and there may be events within the team that could affect them emotionally. If you're working with the coach and the team, it's a good idea to stay informed about the goings on so that you're ready to help in whatever way is necessary or might have an idea of how certain developments are affecting your child so that you can then support them through it appropriately.
Don't put too much pressure on them
You can be there to support your child and to facilitate them so that they can take part in their sports as best as possible, but you should make sure that what you're not doing is pushing them harder than they're willing to go. Parents can get into a habit of expecting too much of children, and this is certainly true of a lot of parents in sports, as well. Try to get a good idea of how engaged they really are and don't force them any further than they want to participate or it's more likely they'll simply stop.
Being a parent of a sporting child is about making sure that the support is good for them. Hopefully, the tips above can help you do just that.
So there are my tips on how, as a parent, you can support your child when it comes to them playing sports. Of course, these can be carried over into any other activities your child might be doing, but they may need a bit of tweaking depending on what hobbies they have. If you have any tips on how a parent can support their child with their hobbies, please feel free to let me know in the comments.
How should parents support their children with their hobbies?
Love Beth xx