Wow. Wow. Wow........ I DVR'd "State of Play" on HBO and am sick. I'm not sure I can watch it all. Not only sick I'm also angry. I'm so angry because the few parents who are like these can make all the others look bad for enjoying their kids and watching and helping and encouraging and pushing them play sports. And I love sports! Video games? Sports? I pick sports. Though I was never good at them....and well, not very good at video games either to tell the truth.
Man. Poor Justus. He is so timid and I see why. I know nothing about kids and raising them but I've seen a lot of abuse in social work. And this is it. Justus doesn't seem to be the greatest at pushing or asserting himself while playing football. But maybe subconsciously he is afraid to. Maybe he can't and it's not a lack of effort but rather a fear of failure. And what comes after failure. Failure to succeed at his father's desire to re-live life through him seems to threaten his very safety.
Siblings. The parent of the little girl golfer has a little sister and it isn't showing her play golf or anything except sit in the shade of the umbrella of the golf cart. (That has to be boring.) Justus's dad tells him he has other brothers and sisters which can be sent to private school and money invested into if Justus doesn't want the life of football.
Seems families like these only have one child they concentrate on to push to succeed at a sport. Spend all their money on. Maybe they believe one is better. Maybe they do see real talent over the others. The one kid who competes is affected for life in many ways which cannot be positive. But there has to be affects on the others as well. Feelings perhaps of not being good enough for mom or dad to give attention. Or jealous of the time and attention their sibling receive from their parents or even jealous of the accolades of peers and the public. And perhaps pity. Pity for their brother or sister and what they are enduring. Lack of power because all they can do is sit in the shade and not help end the craziness. Shame at having to sit in the bleachers and have all the other parents, the sane ones, stare and roll their eyes at their over-involved mom or dad.
The crazy tennis mom affected me the most by sooooo seriously hiding behind God and religion to justify the emotional abuse and life long damage she is inflicting upon her two boys and their faith. The reason she bothers me? Because I know God and I worry that those two boys will never want to know Him or blame God for their nutzo mother or not even believe because if there is a God where was He during all the practices and matches?
But then I remember watching Justus a minute ago and crying with him....maybe he has affected me most.......
And I'm not even going to try to write anything about the father in the stands of his son's basketball games......
Abuse...where is the other parent??? The videos I'm watching? Surely a judge would put an end to the craziness at a video showing the life of these kids if it was brought before him...
Personally I believe it's quite okay to encourage and even push kids to succeed at a sport or hobby and do their best. Find their best. Be their best. I would venture to say that most kids in sports want that for themselves, they have a drive and their parents are just along for the ride. But there is a point for a few when lines are crossed. This documentary just showed it.
Hmmmm....it's now the end of the show and I guess I didn't see the full version. The commentator just said watch the full length film "Trophy Kids". Not sure I want too.
All this type of stuff can and does happen in other activities involving kids other than sports....academics, music, religion, etc
No comments:
Post a Comment