Do we push too hard, or has team spirit softened?
How on earth do you even fit 12 hours of sport into your week for one child alone? Who are you people? We train for an hour and play for an hour each week per sport, for a maximum of two sports.
Yes, we’re a sporting nation – or at least we were. A lot of us hark back to the day of good old Bata Bullets on asphalt and hockey on grass.
We played – ’cause what else was there to do in the weekend? We loved the game, the camaraderie and the competition.
Our parents were around in the weekends and sport was the social event of the week. Good times.
Surely club sport can still be both fun and fulfilling – what’s happened to us? Why aren’t our kids carrying on with sport?
I find it hard to believe that we’re all obsessed with winning; there must be more to it than that.
Are we acknowledging that times have changed, that society’s values have changed?
For example: No longer do we subscribe to a fiveday working week. Parents work weekends just to make ends meet, so they are not around to support kids’ sporting endeavours, let alone fork out huge amounts of money for subs, travel and sports gear.
It’d be great if the Big Five could address the cost issue for clubs while they’re on it. Level out the playing field right there.
Perhaps kids aren’t playing at all because somewhere along the line physical activity, commitment and teamwork were no longer deemed essential qualities by their parents.
We have a generation of opter-outers and ‘‘me-meme’’-ers in New Zealand, with sport being just one aspect of society affected. It’s an attitude in which raising healthy, active kids is someone else’s responsibility (usually school, now Sport NZ). Oh, we’ll participate as long as we don’t have to contribute too much or really commit.
Addressing this issue will take more than a pretty advertising campaign. Change should start and end with us. It’s time we parent up, New Zealand.