This is going to be one of those posts where my rage/indignation/whatever burns white-hot for a few paragraphs and then disappears into the ether. Short and the opposite of sweet.
First, read this story about California youth football.
Now, I’m not a completely heartless old codger, but at the same time, as I’ve written before, I was the kid who didn’t want a tee-ball trophy just for showing up, so I ask the question: why are kids not allowed to lose anymore? Why can’t anyone under the age of 18 get their proverbial teeth kicked in on the athletic fields without adults stepping in to protect them?
This may sound revolutionary to some people, but the fact is, life is all about losing. If we always won at everything, life would be easy. It’s not, because we don’t. And sure, it might suck to lose by 50 points in a pee wee football game, or to lose a Little League game 15-1, but getting by in life is all about how you deal with that kind of thing.
If your youth league team lost in embarrassing fashion, and your response was to go home and cry about how it was unfair that the other team was allowed to keep scoring and somebody should have stopped them and blah blah blah, well, you’re going to grow up to be someone that threatens to go to court every time someone does something totally legal that hurts your fee-fees. However, if you go home, realize that you got your butt kicked because the other team was just flat-out better, and do your best to improve, then maybe you’ve got a shot at being a normal, un-coddled, reasonably well-adjusted adult.
And that comes down to over-parenting. Too many people feel the need to “protect” kids from such complete, utter, abject humiliation. Those same people, however, will be quick to point out that “it’s just a game” and not that important in the grand scheme of things. Well then, if it’s not that important, why do you care if your kid’s team got boatraced this weekend?
We don’t protect kids from things that can actually hurt them – guns, drugs, ignorance, each other, etc. – but we go out of our way to make sure no one has to suffer the indignity of a 103-9 loss on the high school basketball court. Because surely getting beat by too wide of a margin has spurred millions of kids to a life of crime, and we can’t afford the risk of it happening to our beloved babies.
I’m as competitive as anyone, even when it comes to pursuits in which I have no discernible skill. When I lose, when I get utterly destroyed by someone more talented, better prepared, or strategically superior, I don’t try to change the rules. I get up and try again. And if that makes me better than the adults running the Northern California Federation Youth Football League, well, then, good. Because they suck.
A Revolution From My Bed 