‘Experienced parents scolding each other’
There you go, that’s under the tiles, you think when you have registered your child with a sports club. But then the trouble appears to have only just begun.
Margo (39), mother of Sebastiaan (10):
“It’s that my son thinks kickboxing is so cool and I think it’s important that as a child of a single mother he learns to stand up for himself in this way. Sebas has become very resilient in recent years. He knows very well that he should save fighting for ‘in the ring’ and that he is not supposed to lash out fiercely in the schoolyard if someone says something stupid to him.
Fighting in the stands
Unfortunately, the parents of his fellow sportsmen do not all realize this. For the most part, they are cool people who want the best for the sport, but there are also bad apples among them.
I have now experienced a fight a few times in which the accompanying parents also started to beat them up. Or insulting and even threatening each other. Out of anger at an umpire’s bias or possible unsportsmanlike conduct. Just too embarrassing.
It makes me prefer not to let my child participate in youth competitions anymore. His trainer regrets that, he praises Sebastiaan for his talent. But it is a world I want to stay away from.”
Read also – ‘Football, tennis and ballet lessons? One sport is the maximum’ >
Scheming on the side
Roslina (34), mother of Roos (11) and Ismaël (5):
“I don’t come from the swimming world myself, so I went in blank. It was also a real surprise when our daughter Roos was put forward by her swimming club. She could certainly do well in the fifty and hundred meter medley during the national national swimming competition.
“Then not the new Olympic champion”
We tried to compete in this premier league for a year, then I was fed up. The scheming of the other clinging parents, the jealousy, the bad comments. Then an afternoon like that in a sweltering hot swimming hall can last a long time. Roos swam very nicely, but she also felt the pressure and the negative atmosphere. She now likes to splash with her girlfriends. Then not the new Ranomi Kromowidjojo.”
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