I think it starts when you are pregnant. Mothers talk to each other about who gained less weight, who felt the baby kick first, who had an easier delivery….

Then after your child is born it continues with: which baby smiles first, sits on their own, walks first, has more teeth…

Then into childhood it continues with how many sporting and outside activities your child belongs to…
Seems like everything has to be bigger, faster and better, but is that really how we want our children to go through life?

Knowing that no matter what they do they need to do MORE?

I do believe that we as parents know what is best for our child based on their comfort and ability levels, but why do we think we know everything about everything?

I recently read an article titled Parents Driving Coaches Away from the Game. The article explains that parents are applying pressure not only to their children, but to the coaches and it is driving them away from doing what they love.

Taking a step back I can see how easy it would be to want to protect and defend your child, but I think we all need to allow those that we trust and are trained to instruct/teach our children to be in the lead.

We also need to learn to give each other a break and not make life a competition.