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How To Burnout By Age 10. | Alison Escalante MD
Kids pay an emotional price for playing intensive youth sports.
When you think of youth sports what feelings come up for you as a parent? For me, as a parent and a pediatrician, it makes me feel tired. Don’t get me wrong, being active every day is important for kids with growing bodies. Yet for so many kids, youth sports is more a life absorbing career than the one hour a day of play pediatricians recommend.
Most parents have no intention of letting youth sports take over their family life until it happens. What exactly do you do when your 6-year-old gets tapped for the competitive dance team? She’s talented and she loves it, shouldn’t you help her pursue her passions? Sure, dance has become your life, and it means that her opportunities for playdates are now limited. If she sticks with it, she’s certainly not going to have the experience of riding her bike around the neighborhood and knocking down a friend’s door. She’ll be at the dance studio 12–20 hours a week. But isn’t she learning useful skills?
Team play teaches kids all kinds of useful skills, like working together, focus and following directions. Lessons about how to compete with good character and sportsmanship are clearly good for kids. But at what price?
