Ruth Institute Blog

This is a refreshing headline. Family time is important for good mental health, especially family dinners, which would be totally cramped by sports.

By SUE SHELLENBARGER

Mark Breier sees big benefits for his three sons in playing sports. But when his teenage son Travis, dreaming of a pro career, wanted to join an elite traveling basketball team in junior-high school, Mr. Breier said no.

Such teams “grab onto the holidays,” with games scheduled on vacation weekends, cheating the family out of visits to grandparents, aunts and uncles, says Mr. Breier, of Los Altos Hills, Calif. Although Travis was disappointed, Mr. Breier told him, “our priorities are school first, and family time.”

Youth sports have big benefits for kids. Research links participation to better grades and self esteem, long-term improvements in education and employment and lower obesity rates.

But the escalating time, travel and financial demands of many competitive youth teams are pushing some parents over the edge. Many are pushing back, dropping teams mid-season, barring year-round competition for their children or refusing to make their kids available for holiday or vacation-time play.

Organized team sports now start in preschool. Soccer, lacrosse, basketball and T-ball programs begin at age 4 or even 3. Playing “seasons” run year-round, pressuring pre-teens to specialize in a single sport. Children as young as 8 are being shuttled hundreds of miles to national basketball and football tournaments. Annual costs to parents for elite sports teams often extend well into four figures.

“Some parents are saying, ‘This is crazy, spending all this money traveling all over creation. I want my kid to play sports, but I don’t want it to consume their lives, and I am not willing as a parent’” to continue investing so much, says Dan Gould, director of Michigan State University’s Institute for the Study of Youth Sports.

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