Pushy sports parents are argumentative, stubborn, and focused on winning at all costs. When they don’t get their way they become indifferent, tense, and distant.
The choice of being a pushy or passive parent is to choose between indifference and stubbornness.
Not much of a choice.
But there is another type of parent. The prestigious parent. Vicariously living through their kids, unquestionably accepting everything the system has to offer, like a dog trying to please its owner.
Unrealistic expectations, sucking up to the system, scampering after the rainbow at the bottom of the field can be the life of a parent in an academy system. After all, they know best, right?
I wish I had thought of it early. But there is a parent I rarely meet. The parent who accepts a challenge to their thinking. Who is open, inquiring, and assertive to what matters to them.
Neither passive nor aggressive. Not persistent or resistant. But open and consistent. The principled parent.
We don’t need more factories for producing athletic kids. We need one for parents instead.