It’s truly a blessing when you have a child who’s gifted at any kind of activity. You want to encourage it. Many parents have seen their children show great ability in youth sports.  There are many rewards to getting your child onto a select team. Of course, there are also many demands.

Select sports can quickly become all consuming, especially if your child turns out to be a top-tier player. The money commitments will be great, as regular-season fees are much higher, as are travel tournament costs. However, the demands placed on the family dynamic are perhaps just as great.

Time Commitments

The first thing to consider is the amount of time you’ll be spending on youth sports. If your child gets onto a select team, you’ll be introducing a new set of demands on your family’s time and overall family dynamic:

• Actual travel to and from tournaments (hours in the car, time in airports).
• Long summer weekends away from home (Thursday through Monday, in some cases).
• Commitments for your child to attend all regular season games and practices.
• Extra practice sessions outside of those regularly scheduled.
• The possibility that your child travels without you to weekend tournaments.

Many parents start to feel like they’re simply traveling from one game to the next, from one tournament to the next. The rewards of this are great, as you get to see your child perform an activity they love at a high level. There’s also the possibility of college athletic scholarships, so there’s plenty of motivation to devote the time and energy to youth sports.

Other Siblings

You’ll want to make sure your non-participating children have a voice as well. Of course, compromises need to be made by everyone involved if your family is going to make a commitment to a select sport. Some things to keep in mind:

• Money spent on the select sport versus other activities. Other children in the family will notice.
• The attention you give to the child in a select sport.
• The attention the child in the select sport gives to their siblings’ activities.

You want to make sure that the child who is on the select team isn’t overshadowing their brothers or sisters.  One idea is to have family meeting where the child who’s not involved in the sport gets to talk about things they’re interested in as well. Then, be sure the family supports that child in their interests.
Everything may not always be equal, but it’s important to try to achieve balance.

If you enjoyed this blog, please check out these related blogs.

Youth Sports Involvement
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