I'd agree. Sports is an easy target, but what about music/art? I wonder if parents in that area are just as unrealistic. I'd say perhaps not, given that music/art tends to be more of a middle and upper class pursuit, but I'd still wager that there is an unrealistic expectation of success -- just not as pervasive.
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26% of parents with high-school athletes think they're raising a pro. (NYT)
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I'd agree. Sports is an easy target, but what about music/art? I wonder if parents in that area are just as unrealistic. I'd say perhaps not, given that music/art tends to be more of a middle and upper class pursuit, but I'd still wager that there is an unrealistic expectation of success -- just not as pervasive.
What? There are competitive people out there you know, that like to compete, get better at something and win. I play Soccer competitively in Germany for 12 years and always knew I wouldn't make it to the pro. But I still enjoy playing it 4 times a week and winning a hard fought game and especially a championship is one of the greatest feelings in the world.
And so feel over 6 million other kids and adults in Germany.
as long as there's money in a college sport though i'd much rather see it go to players than the NCAA. for a lot of them it would be life-changing amounts.
for a lot of poor minorities, it's one of the few places they see people from their culture succeeding and making a lot of money
Same. I figured it was 50% or higher.
Parents want to believe in their children. Film at 11.
TouchMyBox
Member
I guess it's better than 26% of parents thinking their kids are shit.
Just as long as they don't let their kids languish in their studies because "he's not going to need to know how to write well when he's gonna be an all-star quarterback".
Give the billions to charity and then everyone is happy, except the NCAA, of course.
Just as long as they don't let their kids languish in their studies because "he's not going to need to know how to write well when he's gonna be an all-star quarterback".
Give the billions to charity and then everyone is happy, except the NCAA, of course.
Gnome Scat
Member
Well that explains a lot.
NealMcCauley
Member
Wasn't too bad in my school iirc. Not much pressure from what I've gathered catching up when home. Believable percentage imo though. Schools around our district in the county could get nuts.
When your quarterback's best offer is in west virginia you temper expectations. Besides, most players were self aware enough to know their grades would immediately disqualify them from any college, and they just enlisted after graduation to help get their shit together.
When your quarterback's best offer is in west virginia you temper expectations. Besides, most players were self aware enough to know their grades would immediately disqualify them from any college, and they just enlisted after graduation to help get their shit together.
I know the statistics in the article, I was asking for statistics along the lines of how likely children from those groups are to move into higher income and education levels later in life overall. Basically, are these groups focusing on sports to the detriment of education that would be a better guarantee of income mobility.
Same here. The way I've seen parents push high school sports especially, I thought it would be more like 35-40%
Duracelllll
Member
I remember reading a long time ago that the odds of becoming a professional golfer is 1 in 140,000. Made me feel better that I never became a professional sports player of any sport haha
neogaffer1
Banned
i don't even want to be a doctor and am trying to be an engineer instead and my parents are mad that i'm not a medical major and are forcing me to take the mkat and med school pre-reqs anyways.
birthday-suit
Banned
Yeah. A lot lower.
Vicetrailia
Banned
Doesn't matter if they're wrong as long as they are trying to make well-rounded adults, and are supporting their children.
I recently worked with someone who is doing as much as she can for her sons basketball career. He just started in college and she's still fully supportive of him and stresses grades and athletics. He's nowhere near the best in the country (as a highschooler), but he's highly facilitated. Hell I wish my mother gave me even a quarter of that kind of support growing up.
I recently worked with someone who is doing as much as she can for her sons basketball career. He just started in college and she's still fully supportive of him and stresses grades and athletics. He's nowhere near the best in the country (as a highschooler), but he's highly facilitated. Hell I wish my mother gave me even a quarter of that kind of support growing up.
Princess Carl
Member
It's more that they're banking on their children given the education breakdown.
Why get their hopes up for something that's essentially guaranteed not to happen? Wouldn't it be more advantageous to get children involved in activities that offer a much better chance at a decent, happy life?
Pretty interesting statistic. I feel like more parents should be interested in their kid getting a scholarship to play in college first and then look at going professional from there. The same thing happened to me, but there is next to no money the sport (track). Figured it was worth it + I didn't enjoy it.
It's not about being competitive or not. There aren't enough stakes involved that people should rightfully give more than half a care about it. You win, great. You lose, not so great, but it's not that important. That's how it should be for high school athletics. Nobody is getting anything more for being there other than self fulfillment.
HP_Wuvcraft
Banned
Yet I wonder how many of them do it because they think/know a scholarship is the only way to get their kid into college?
IISANDERII
Member
So you're saying there's a chance. Well somebody gotta make it, why not my kid?
I've sometimes wondered who would win in a match between the best college football team and the worst NFL team, but I suppose it's safe to say that even the worst NFL team is comprised of all the best that the college teams had to offer at some point, so with few exceptions, the worst NFL team would usually win?
ArkhamFantasy
Member
The NFL team would be up 42-0 at half time.
This post makes like no sense.
Napoleonthechimp
Member
My parents used to have a high opinion of me, but since numerous personal failures and setbacks they've learnt the error of their ways.
HowlingMad
Banned
This is an important point. The OP words this incorrectly in the thread title and the meanings are quite different. Having a child that is in a sport and hoping he/she can succeed at a pro-level, is a lot different than being convinced that little Johnny is going to be an NFL QB.
OriginofHysteria
Banned
I do hope my future kid would take after me and play hockey, obviously it'd be cool if they were good enough go get a scholarship and play in college (or even prep school) but hearing all the shit as a ref that I hear parents say, I would never be that crazy.
Yeah I looked. That's v different than "think".
Zen_Arcade
Banned
Parents delusional about how good their children are at something?
Not surprising.
Not surprising.
Yep OP is editorializing. The article is editorializing too, especially "Those parents are deluding themselves". "Hope" and "delusion" are in some ways synonyms but they have very different connotations. The article doesn't really motivate reframing the former as the latter.
And why is 26% "astonishing"? Hope is cheap. I'm frankly surprised the number is so low.
It gestures at how hope could be a problem (sports can be expensive) but doesn't really close the loop. Hoping your child goes pro is only a problem if you're making sacrifices to pursue that hope. If the kid wants to play and is good and gets value (social relationships, exercise, personal achievement, etc) out of participating, then hoping it goes into a career is just idle imagining and not a driving "delusion". So: how many parents are making sacrifices chasing an enterprise doomed to fail? Do such parents have access to an alternative investment they could be making?
The article even recognizes it's doing this, concluding "As students and families sign up for sports this fall and winter, we should be asking: if you knew this was just for fun, would you still do it? Would you do this much of it? Would you do it differently?". You can easily and all of those questions in a positive way (would still do it) and also hope your kid goes pro. Those aren't exclusive. The gap between hope and achievement is naturally large. That's the whole thing with hope. Are parents misled or misunderstanding how long their shiots are? The article doesn't demonstrate that.
So like. The article poses a question worth asking but doesn't really offer enough evidence to draw any useful conclusions.
Tertullian
Member
.
If I had a kid who loved hockey (or whatever), I would hope he could make it pro. Which is completely different from thinking he will go pro. I hope I'll win the lottery, but I certainly don't think I'll win the lottery.
I can't tell if you're being sarcastic. If not than that's some quality bullshit you're spreading.
Man, reading all these posts here I don't know how it's over there in the US if your athletes never leave the pitch and never go to school but all this stuff that's being claimed here couldn't be further from the truth in Germany and I'm pretty sure in the rest of the world.
It's pretty crazy actually for me to hear that people believe that focusing on a sport and playing it competitively is harmful for their development when the consensus in Germany is that every kid should play a sport in a club because it helps them not only physically and by being healthy but also in terms of socialising and learning helpful skills for your adult life like teamwork, taking responsibility etc.
Your Entertainer
Member
Playing sports is good in that regard
What's bad is the cult-like devotion to it, marginalizing academics in favor of Athletics (through individuals ignoring school or through schools devoting funds to athletics instead of necessary academics etc)
Examples:
- small school spending thousands (pretty much all free funds for that year) on an end zone camera for fucking high school football instead of classroom upkeep, band equipment that badly needs replacing, etc
- football team loses: on front page local news paper, players idolized by cheerleaders, pictures hanging in school hallways. Quiz bowl team state champs: one paragraph in school paper on second page
My dad was a professional baseball player and even he advised me not to take high school sports too seriously and to focus on grades instead.
It was the best advice he ever gave me. The few guys I played with who tried to go pro never made it and they were right around my skill level.
It was the best advice he ever gave me. The few guys I played with who tried to go pro never made it and they were right around my skill level.
What??
thetrin
Hail, peons, for I have come as ambassador from the great and bountiful Blueberry Butt Explosion
They should be encouraging them to get an education so they have options for their future.
Your father is a smart man.
Same here lol
HarlequinDaze
Neo Member
Talent can appear in a person seemingly out of nowhere, but generally its genetic. Why do parents think their children should be good at things when they themselves aren't?
sans_pants
avec_pénis
Except good linemen in football need to be pushing 300lbs
Zeus Molecules
illegal immigrants are stealing our air
I'm surprised that % isn't higher
Miggytronz
Member
I played high school baseball from 1999 - 2002 here in Virginia Beach, VA. In those years I played against or with a few MLB players today.....
BJ Upton
Justin Upton
Ryan Zimmerman
Mark Reynolds
After high school I played in a game where I got hit in between my shoulders by a 94 mph fastball on a 3-0 count by Justin Verlander.
BJ Upton
Justin Upton
Ryan Zimmerman
Mark Reynolds
After high school I played in a game where I got hit in between my shoulders by a 94 mph fastball on a 3-0 count by Justin Verlander.
Risible
Member
You ain't kidding. My son plays lacrosse as well and plays on travel teams. He's been coached at this point by no less than three Major League Lacrosse players. The MLL guys all either have "real" jobs that let them take time off during the season or work for local sports facilities as their job.
So he's 11 years old and trains with three of the top players on the planet - he's a goalie and over the summer he trained with Drew Adams, the number one goalie in the world basically, guy is MLL Champ and on Team USA. It's like playing pee wee football and getting coached every week by Adrian Peterson or something, it's kinda surreal to me.
Dude Abides
Banned
Yeah? How many parents believe their kid is going to win the Nobel Prize?
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