Parenting Teenagers (12-18) Support Group
This community is focused on the joys, challenges and concerns faced by parents of teenagers (12 to 18 year olds). The major areas of child development include: physical development, perception and sensory development, communication and language development, cognitive development, emotional development and social development.
My husband and I grew up in the same small town. Everyone played all sports offered - if you were good, obviously played more and if not so good (my case), less. Our son is 13 and in 8th grade. His basketball team is not good. We lose every game by 20-30 points and sometimes more. He is down about it but I told him if he wants to improve his skills, he has to work for it - nothing is handed to you. Sometimes he’s into sports, sometimes he’s not. But we live in a bigger city where if you don’t do select leagues, you probably aren’t going to make it in high school teams. I’m having a hard time with this. I feel like we made poor decisions when he was younger - not on consistent teams, not going to a lot of camps, etc. I know sports aren’t everything but I feel like, for some reason, that I’m ruining him and he will regret later the fact he didn’t give it more effort. The last thing I want to do is raise an entitled child, but has anyone else had similar experiences? I don’t feel like there’s anyone I can talk about this with and it’s really bothering me.
You only get one childhood.
My son is 18 now, and far from entitled He studied hard in high school and got good grades. He's working a part time job, and putting himself through college. In what little spare time he's got, he's a volunteer firefighter.
Don't forget just to have fun with him at this age. The time will come soon when the only reason his eyes light up at seeing you is 'cause he wants the car keys.