Hot under the collar

No this post is not about weather, instead its a commentary on the barometer of parental behaviour. Let me just say that by no means am I a perfect parent nor do I claim to be one. The pressures on parents today are enormous, with education cutbacks, violence, and so much sexual-commercial stuff on TV , it's enough to drive you crazy. But yet we manage to do the best we can.

Still sometimes we can get out of hand. Case and point, my 10 year old is in a tennis league playing every Saturday against teams from other South Florida locales. Most parents sit back and enjoy their kids playing hard, having fun, winning and of course losing.

I think this competition is an integral part of life... as they grow up they will encounter other kinds of victories, and many loses , from emotional to job related. They must learn how to deal with them, overcome them and move on. As parents I believe it is our obligation to guide them through it, but they themselves must handle it.

((Ok go off track a bit)). The team my kid is in has won one match and lost two. The two defeats were at the hands of older teams, but no excuse here, they both played hard. It was the parent coach from the most recent team that kinda startled me.

Key points:

• They were 20 min. late (No apologies offered when they arrived)
• They were all boys 10-12 years old. (Our team has 2 girls 8 and 10)
• The coach complained he had driven from Key Biscayne to play girls???
• His players were unruly.
• The coach was constantly yelling
• The vocabulary of some of his players, left allot to be desired.

Our team lost to the better players, but just like the coach, they did not shake hands and gloated off the courts. Even though our kids lost the game, I believe they won in other ways.

• They did not give up at the hands of an overwhelming opponent.
• Handled their defeat with grace.
• And improved their play as they battled their better opponent.

I believe this parent-coach made for a very uncomfortable environment for all, not just the kids. Other parents wanted to confront him, but what good would that do? Instead of being reasonable adults that kids can look up to we would just would have acted like immature kids.

What do you think??? Am I being too picky?