In a sports club, the parent is a role model that shows kids the way and to teach them to observe life’s boundary lines.
You can choose how this power will impact people – for good or for bad.
Sport can be a wonderful teacher of valuable life lessons; humility, compassion, persistence, teamwork and collaboration. Children deserve to be permitted and encouraged to experience these life lessons. You know when a club isn’t diligent about safeguarding this ethos. This is the sort of club where abusive parents are not sanctioned.
Where coaches treat kids unfairly. Parents feel unable to raise issues about what they see is going wrong. As a parent, you can play a huge role in ensuring your club is one where all kids’ sporting experiences are positive and life-affirming. It requires you to be on the alert, to do your own bit in operating by your club’s Code of Conduct and to be prepared to call out bad behaviours in a civil and constructive way.
As a parent, you can guide kids towards positive behaviours free of entitlement, abuse and violence.