Things That Annoy Me Thursday: Negative Comments When Kids Don't Win

“You got your butt kicked! What happened?”

“PICK UP THE PACE, ELIJAH. PICK UP THE PACE LIKE WE TALKED ABOUT!”

“Second to last? That was awful.”

“ELIJAH! WHAT DID WE DISCUSS? PICK. UP. THE. PACE!”

“What the hell? Did you just give up at the end?”

“ELIJAH! I KNOW YOU HEAR ME! MOVE! MOVE! MOVE! DON’T SLOW DOWN!”


I seriously felt like I needed ear plugs.

You know how my son had his first track meet?

Well, I also got to experience ways that parents, erm, express themselves while watching their children compete.

Some of the things people were shouting were AWFUL. Why would people SAY rude things to kids just because they didn’t win? Did they forget that winning isn’t everything?

Geez.

“My son just gives up towards the end,” a mother was grumbling. “Gives up. Ridiculous.”

“You know, he’s TRYING. Sheesh, you and Abby Lee Miller would get along great,” I snapped.

No, I didn’t say that. I WANTED to. But I had to bite my tongue. If that’s the way they wanted to parent, fine. But I knew it had to be crushing their kids. Maybe some kids like it. Maybe it motivates them. But it would NOT motivate me. At all.

I could see other parents who thought like me cringe when they heard the mothers and fathers yelling awful things. One mother who kept shouting to ELIJAH seriously needed to be told to calm down. Get passionate, fine. But for the love of chocolate, stop disturbing the peace.

I will never say cruel things to my kids if they don’t play or do well in sports. It’s not right in my eyes.

So during the next track meet, I’ll continue to keep my mouth shut.

And then probably blog about what I’ve heard…