Janis B. Meredith's Blog: JBM Thinks Sportsparenting, page 67

Teach Your Kids How to Fight

Do your kids know how to fight? No one needs to teach kids to fight; they are born with that instinct. But there is a healthy way and an unhealthy way to handle conflict. By teaching your kids the right way, they can “fight” in a way that resolves conflict instead of escalating it. There will be...

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Do You Know When to Shut Up? 5 Red Flags You Should Not Ignore!

As parents–and especially as sport parents–we sometimes forget when to shut up. We get caught up in the emotions and the concerns of the moment, and all filters disappear. Words just start coming out and there is simply no taking them back. Perhaps if we saw some red flags pop up in our conversations, we...

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Stop Making Sports Easy for Your Kids! Here’s Why the Pain is Important.

Making sports easy for kids has become a national sports parenting past time. Our youth sports culture has become enamored with the Fun Philosophy, the idea that sports must be a blast or kids will not want to play. PSHHAW. That’s what I say. What a Saturday Morning Bootcamp Taught Me It took a Saturday morning workout...

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You Don’t have to Hate Youth Sports Fundraising Any More, and Here’s Why

Very few sports parents that I’ve ever met like youth sports fundraising. And yet, it has become more and more necessary as the cost of youth sports continues to rise and parents feel the pinch. There’s registration fees, equipment, tournaments, travel, training camps, and coaching. Parents of higher-level junior athletes can literally spend thousands just so their child can play...

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Mental Toughness Podcast: How You Can Use Sports to Help Build Your Child’s Self Esteem

Is your child’s self esteem constantly taking a hit? I think it’s a battle many kids fight at one time or another in their lives. In this episode of the Sports Parenting Podcast, I talk with Kirk Mango, author of Becoming a True Champion, about how coaches and parents can use sports as one way to build a child’s...

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Make It Right: Former NBA Player Offers Young Athletes a Healthy Basketball Culture

Tired of reading about all that is wrong in youth sports? So are we! TeamSnap and I have teamed up for the Make It Right Campaign this fall to share stories with you of people who are doing what they can to Make It Right in youth sports. There are lots of folks out there who...

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6 Unrealistic Expectations Sports Parents Place on Young Athletes

One of the biggest reasons for conflict in relationships is unmet expectations. And in youth sports, it is no different. Parents expect things from their kids who play sports, things that the child may not be ready or able to deliver. We should be hoping for the best for our kids. We should express our...

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7 Ways to Protect Family Time

Is there a constant battle in your home to protect family time? Or perhaps you’ve not really given it a second thought. You are so caught up in the current of busy-ness–work, kids’ activities, home management, family responsibilities–that the need to protect family time has been no more than a fleeting thought. If that is...

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5 Signs That You are Vicariously Living Through Your Child

Living through your child is not necessarily a bad thing. I think as parents, we all live a little bit through our kids. We remember our positive or negative experiences and we want to see our kids stay away from the bad ones and enjoy the good ones. But when the conversation turns to youth sports, the...

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Mental Toughness Podcast: Help Your Child Handle Anger in Sports

Anger in sports is a problem in every league. In this podcasting episode I have asked Ray Lokar Lokar of Basketball4ALL to discuss specific ways that coaches and parents can help athletes deal with their anger in competition. Basketball4ALL provides lessons, camps, clinics, competitions, and events for the Southern California basketball community. Lokar is also the Southern California Lead Trainer...

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