Poor Parental Behaviour
We are, each of us, all too familiar with the phenomenon of poor parental behaviour, such as shouting at referees, starting fights with other spectators, or treating a six-year-old like they're a professional athlete . Has this become the social norm at children’s sporting events? On occasion, do we lapse into this type of behaviour ourselves?
Children love to hear their parents cheer, when it is positive and approprite. This increases their enjoyment of the experience and makes them try harder. They do not, however, like to hear their parents shouting obscenities and verbally abusing them and everyone around them.
The Sport Moves Us report indicated, in fact, that 60% of Canadians think that poor parental behaviour is a critical and top threat to community-level sport.
As evidenced by continuous social media accounts of poor parental behaviour, clearly much more needs to be done if we are to shift the social norms in this area.