Gymnastics is a nasty sport that has left me permanently damaged physically. I was told to choose between figure skating and gymnastics...I can't say how figure skating would have gone but gymnastics was hard on my body. Don't forget ballet and tap when I was little.
Many sports right now are nasty and very hard on children's bodies. In skating, children are expected to land double jumps well before their bodies are sufficiently developed to be able to handle the strain. A lot of the grace has gone out of skating and many people feel that the sport has turned into jumping contests that require ever-more spectacular feats. Many elite skaters end up needing hip surgery before they're 25 to repair damage done by years of slamming onto the ice.
In baseball, young pitchers are forced to keep throwing, and, as Azuil said, told to ignore pain. Ballet, gymnastics...the list goes on, and it's very upsetting.
I like it when I hear that people want their kids to be kids and not mini adults. I wrote a paper on adult Narcissism via their children...in other words a parent living vicariously through their child which is a dangerous thing to do....
Yes I agree with you completely! It really, really bugs me that parents of gifted kids get accused of "not letting our kids be kids" because we let them read books when they're four. And it bugs me even more that these same people turn a blind eye to parents who shout their 8-year-olds into tears at athletic events.
Which parent is forcing adulthood onto a kid? Me, because I bought a third-grade
BrainQuest book for my five-year-old because she begged me for it? Or parents who yell their way through soccer games, expect a kid to give 100% at every practice (year round, of course), and all the while tell the kid to ignore pain?
Sheesh!
Val
(PS, Wren, thanks for the kind words in your first post of this thread)
