Have you seen your child get embarrassed in sports?

 

No athlete enjoys feeling that way, and no parent enjoys watching a child feel that way. When your child faces situations where he feels embarrassed, he may want to quit or go hide in a corner.

 

My youngest daughter was once so embarrassed after a volleyball match that she went and hid. We looked all over the school campus to find her sitting by herself, mulling over the humiliation she felt.

 

As parents, our instinct is to shield our children from embarrassment. But that is not always the best thing to do.

 

Last year around the time of the Olympics, NBC aired a show called “How to raise an Olympian,” where they interviewed several Olympic athletes and their parents about what it was like to raise a champion.

 

Mikaela Shiffrin, a gold medal skier, talked about being embarrassed as an athlete and summed up the impact that embarrassment can have on an athlete, and why it’s OK for a child to feel it every now and then in youth sports: If you’re going be successful at anything, you’re going embarrass yourself along the way.

 

How many times did Mikaela fall? Probably way too many to count. How many days did she feel humiliated and want to quit? Probably more than she can remember. In order to be a skiing champion, she had to learn that “It’s OK to fall” and in order to win the gold, she had to understand that “It’s OK not to win.”

 

Are you willing to stand back and let your child suffer the embarrassment it will take to make him the best he can be?

 

http://usafootball.com/blogs/football-parents/post/11784/why-it%E2%80%99s-ok-for-your-child-to-be-embarrassed-in-sports

Im all for watching my kids fail from time to time. Its a life lesson and gets them ready for whats about to hit them one day.

I think each kid is different also. There are certain people/mindsets when they fail, they do everything they can to get better. Other kids/adults who fail just want to fold up shop. I have a child who is very competitive and learns from losing. I'm not sure she has ever really been embarrassed but she takes every setback and turns it into a learning experience.

Thank ya.

It is OK to fail. It's a part of life children need to learn.

 

I have always been against the "everyone gets a trophy" mentality.

Nothing wrong with learning how to lose before tasting success.

Some of the biggest (and most important) lessons come from losses and embarrassing moments.

Kids failing or being embarrassed is much harder on the parents than it is on the kids. Kids are remarkably resilient when it comes to those things. I will always believe that more parents give up on and quit sports than the kids.

If you can't deal with failure, embarrassment and disappointment, you aren't cut out for sports.

 

You're probably not gonna do too well in life either.

Great post Guru. These situations are great development opportunities as parents.

Define "embarrassed" for me please. This can certainly be taken several different ways IMO. Can think of several cases right in my own back yard where kids have been embarrassed and not by their own doing.

Embarrassed is a strong emotion. I like the emotion of being humbled in athletics. It's more productive and puts you and your opinion of yourself in perspective to reality. Gives you information and feedback to get better. Embarrassed will make you quit.