Being a parent is hard. Being a parent of young athletes is even harder.

Between finding the time to drive your young athlete to and from practice, buying the right equipment, attending games, and everything else that is a part of the youth sports experience, you certainly have your work cut out for you.

Hectic schedule and expenses aside, though, nothing beats sitting back and watching your young athlete play, improve, and, most importantly, have fun.

If you’re a parent of young athletes, you’ve probably seen parents who know how to handle themselves in all situations concerning their kid and youth sports. And maybe you’ve seen other parents who haven’t quite grasped how to behave and treat their young athletes during and after a game.

You might even be looking for ways to improve your own mentality towards your young athletes and youth sports in general. If so, check out these helpful do’s and don’ts for parents of young athletes.

 

Do’s

• Do be interested and supportive in your child’s games, practices, and discussions about their sport. Have a conversation about it. When your child knows that you are interested and are there for support, it will help them continue to enjoy playing.
• Do allow your kid to play whatever sports interest them. Encourage your child to try multiple sports if they express interest. Playing multiple sports helps keep young athletes healthy. On the other hand, limiting what sports you let your child participate in can lead to disinterest and an overall negative experience with sports.
• Do remain calm and composed in intense moments. Whether something good or bad just happened, it’s important not to go overboard with your emotions. Now, that doesn’t mean you can’t cheer for your kid and the team. Just remember, you are a parent first and a fan second.
• Do respect the coach. If you want to discuss something with the coach, do it privately. Not during the game.
• Do make it a point to cheer for the supporting plays. It’s human nature to recognize better young athletes and plays where points are scored. But don’t forget to give a little recognition to the young athletes that set up that play with an awesome pass, steal, etc. Whether the young athlete who made an awesome pass was your kid or not, these less flashy plays are just as important.
• Do use failure as a teaching lesson. Making a bad play and failing is inevitable. Even the most talented athletes mess up. Spin these negative experiences into something your kid can learn from. Using failure to help improve is one of the most valuable tools. Not just for athletes, but for everyone.
• Do focus on what your kid can control. Concerning yourself with every aspect of the team’s practice and games is unrealistic and exhausting. When you minimize how many things you worry about, life is much less stressful.
• Do demonstrate a positive attitude at games and practices. Your child will notice how you are acting and chances are they will follow suit.
• Do create goals with your young athlete, and make sure they’re one and the same. When parents and their kids are on the same page, misunderstanding and frustration fades away.
• Do make it fun. Talk with your child about practice and games. Ask how the game went, did they have a good time, etc. Throw a ball with them in the yard. Show up to games with a supportive, lively attitude, and your young athlete will always want you at their games.

 

Don’ts

• Don’t lose control of your emotions over a bad call, play, etc. It’s easy to get emotionally invested in sports, regardless of if your kid is playing or not. There are healthy ways to display your displeasure. Yelling and having an outburst is not the proper approach to take.
• Don’t blame coaches, refs, or kids. The coaches and refs are doing their best out there, as well as the young athletes. Voicing your displeasure publicly isn’t going to solve anything in that moment.
• Don’t define success by wins and losses. It’s easy to gauge how your child and the team are doing based on their record. However, it’s not an accurate representation. The record doesn’t tell the entire story. Focus on the improvements your child makes in practice and games. Tracking progress is a much more accurate method to measure success.
• Don’t dwell on your child’s mistakes. Treating mistakes as teachable lessons can be a helpful way to improve. Continually criticizing a young athlete’s mistakes is one of the worst ways to get them to improve. Instead, you’ll cause them to lose interest in the sport and not have fun.
• Don’t allow your young athlete to engage in self-defeating talk. Youth sports are highly competitive. If you hear your child saying things like “I stink,” or something worse, shut that down instantly. Self-defeating comments never helped anyone. Try to turn the dialogue away from negative remarks to positive ones.
• Don’t treat your child differently after a win or loss. Sure, you’ll most likely be disappointed that your kid’s team lost a game. But there’s no reason to take it out on them. Show your young athlete the same amount of love and support after a win or loss. Youth sports take up a lot of parents and their kids’ time, but it’s just one thing that you can, and should, bond over. Your young athlete probably won’t be playing sports forever. But they’ll still be your child long after the cleats are hung up.

 

This list of do’s and don’ts might not be the easiest to follow at first, but being a parent is never simple to begin with. Just try your best; your young athlete will be all the better for it.