How Participation Trophies Are Making Kids Soft

Yeah losers, I got mine and I'm keeping it. You mollycoddlers just keep on giving out your "all are winners" trophies. What is really amusing is they have the effect of making your little Johnnie and his other overly sheltered playmates more like "all losers".

 

The analogy doesn't work at all.

 

Didn't for me either.

 

That tells me you have never played competitive sports. It took me next to no time as a kid to realize who I wanted to play big games with and who I wanted as far away from me as possible when the stage got big.

 

I did play competitive sports. Some people are natural losers, but I don't think people are natural winners.

 

You know a natural winner or loser from observing the youth rec leagues. There are some kids just participating because mommy and daddy signed them up to post cute Facebook photos. Then you got the handful of kids keeping score in their heads trying to "win" and feeling disgusted knowing they "lost" with no official score.
It's the rec leagues officials and the helicopter parents to an extent brainwashing these kids that there are no real winners or losers at such a young age. It's the kids that aren't listening to these people that are the natural winners.

 

This reminded me of rec league basketball when I was a kid. Our league turned the scoreboard off once a team was up 25 or more. That really pissed my friends and I off so once we were up 25 we started playing harder.

 

That would piss me off if I was on the losing team. I mean really piss me off.

How old were you?

 

Liberals are making our kids softer. That and global warming.

 

When you warm something up, it naturally gets softer.

 

See, NorrisAlan gets it.

 

10 ish.

 

We have a local Upward league that doesn't keep score in some age groups...what's the point of playing?

 

I think it all depends on the age. Once you hit 7-8 years old, keeping score becomes important.

 

My son last year, at age 4, got the game winning hit in 4-6 year old tee ball and got mobbed by the 6 year olds. He quickly realized he'd done something very important and was happy.

We were watching the Cards play yesterday, and after Moss' walk off, I asked him if he remembered doing that last year. Grinning from ear to ear, "yup!"

 

You almost got it. When I get hard your ladies get warmer. There it is. The liberal conspiracy.

 

As early as I can remember playing tee ball, I remember wanting to win, and we would all ask the coach, "did we win?" I don't know if we knew what winning was, but we knew we wanted to.

 

Guy I coached with this past spring teeball season was all about having fun and could care less about winning. The kids (5-6 yr olds) asked if we won and he looked at each of them and responded with, "did you guys have fun?!?!!?" and then followed it up with "well then we won because we had fun!!!" while to scoreboard is right next to us and we got destroyed 20-something to 3 or so. That pissed the parents off and I couldn't believe (well, I can now) he said/did that.

 

We had a coach like that.

Only go to 19 on them though, we were aiming for 20. Unfortunately one of their kids was able to knock a ball down headed for the fence otherwise that cost us that run.

 

Not that I would, but he hasn't asked me to help coach this fall. I know he's coaching so maybe it was understood that I wasn't too keen on his way of doing things.