How NOT To Act As A Father To An Athlete
By
on
August 16th, 2007
Print This Post
Email This Post
Since I've been a tennis player from a very early age and played professionally for some years I've seen my share of horrible parenting. There is so much money, fame, and prestige in sports that some parents simply can't handle it. Latest example, clip below, a swimming coach starts beating up his 19 year old daughter after a poor performance. Great example of how not to act as a father.
I never had this problem with my parents. If anything, they should have been much stricter. I was allowed to act poorly on the court way too many times. The parents behaving poorly are usually desperate for their children to succeed, often because they didn't do so well themselves. Or perhaps they had great talent but never made it for some reason. Sadly, in some cases they want kids to do well mostly because of money and fame which often leads to disaster.
The father of the swimmer is now not allowed to come close to his daughter or even communicate with her via phone. If the father acts like this in front of cameras and spectators, I wonder how he acts when they are alone?
Seeing this, makes my cringe.
I don’t think I will ever understand the need to berate your child for behaving “poorly” at something.
That’s insane.
OMG that makes me sick. That poor girl. As if she were not under enough pressure as it is. To physically assault her because she did not perform to his expectations is appalling. I agree with you–what goes on behind closed doors? My heart goes out to her, and to all the others that DIDN’T get caught on tape that suffer in silence.
ADad, this is horrible,I too plead guilty at shouting at my seven year old for not doing her homework and I have also hit her on the bottom in my rage. She is a difficult baby and I know I should have handled it better.But to see such a stark moving image has really shaken me. How would I look when I am admonishing my little one-no less horrifying I guess, a giant stomping a little slip of a girl with a rock hard stubbornness. But does that mean that I will let her misbehave and be lazy and not do her work?How to manage difficult children without hitting or intimidating them, that is the question.