Have you ever fallen for the “bait-and-switch” technique that some shady marketers use to sell their products?
You see an advertised product that you’re interested in, and you’re enticed to visit the store. However, once there, you discover that the information was not completely accurate and all of a sudden the “bait” that had your curiosity piqued is “switched” to something completely different. Or in some cases, you are met with pressure to buy something that is a lot more expensive.
Parents—perhaps unknowingly—slip into this “bait-and-switch” mindset with their kids and their sports activities.
It’s an easy thing to do. It goes something like this:
You promise little Johnny that if he plays a sport, it will be SOOOO much fun. →
He’ll make new friends. →
He’ll learn some new tricks. →
And he might even get a nice, shiny trophy to put in his room.
Of course, Johnny is excited about this new “gift of fun.” He jumps in enthusiastically.
Then seasons go by, and you’ve traveled MANY miles to weekend games. You’ve bought more cleats and Gatorade than you could count. Somewhere along the way, you decided it was important to get Johnny some extra coaching—that wasn’t cheap—and you strongly encouraged him to do the summer soccer camps that everyone else was doing.
It seems to have happened overnight, but suddenly his sport appears to be connected to an unspoken pressure for Mom, Dad, and Johnny.
Fun has been replaced with high amounts of performance stress. →
Time with friends becomes an obsession with competitors. →
Learning something new is now filled with hard expectations. →
Scholarship dollars become the new trophies to attain.
Johnny’s sports participation no longer feels like a gift but more like a DEBT that he can only repay with MORE successful execution of his skills.
How did this happen? Did Mom and Dad take back all that they promised? Or is this just a natural progression, that is unavoidable?
Sometimes it’s helpful to look at what NOT to do, to change the outcome. Here are 3 areas to evaluate.
1) Are You Complimenting Results Only?