The Importance of Getting Your Kids into Sports

Ah children, the entire reason for the human race to be doing this little dance called life; our inborn need to reproduce. However, once they are here, how are you supposed to know what to do with them? It seems nowadays kids just get plopped in front of an iPad as us parents wait for them to be old enough to go off to university and we get some freedom back. Not the best strategy for raising our ‘hope for a better future’ blah-blah. If you do need something more fulfilling and useful for your kids to be doing, getting them into sports (unless they categorically refuse, then don’t force them… get them into Mathletics … or whatever that rubbish is called) is a good way to go.

Exercise

I will start with the two most important reasons why you should get your kids into sport and the first one is: exercise. If the media is to be believed then the Western world is facing a pandemic … or epidemic … I don’t know which one means what, to be honest. Anyway, all of our kids are supposedly morbidly obese from too much Xbox and Papa John’s. There’s only so much blame we can heap on others before we decide to actually do something about it. Getting you child excited about a sport and signing them up to a club or lessons, whether it’s basketball, soccer, or karate will improve their overall quality of life, starting with their health (also, if they’re good then they might make  a fortune and you can retire to the Bahamas…)

Social Interaction

And now onto the second most important ‘side-effect’ of taking up a sport: they make friends outside of school. Having too many friends isn’t possible. Friends and acquaintances lead to more opportunities, especially later in life, whether it’s being set up with the love of your life or getting your dream ob. Admittedly I may be jumping forward a decade or two, but enable them to make friends and learn how to do it by themselves will give the necessary social skills needed to get where they want to go when they are adults. Whatever you feel about sports, you can’t deny the benefit of getting your children socialized.

Scholarships

This ties in to my point (half joke, half meant it) about them becoming good and making you loads of money. All David Beckhams and Novak Djokovics of the world started somewhere and your kid could be the new Mike Tyson (without the bizarre oral fixation). Even if they don’t become world-class athletes they could still save you money if they were spotted by a sport scholarship agency, for example, as then they will pay some of their college tuition fees which is a great help. You can click here for more information on how such scholarships work in the real world (chances are you only know about them from Hollywood and TV).

Peace

This is only a side note; really, to the actual benefits listed above, but it might be enough to sway some parents (I know it does me). You get a little free peace and quiet time. Whilst Junior is off kicking a ball around a field, you get to do whatever you used to do before kids came along and ruined benefit your life. I jest, of course… Kids are wonderful (my husband made me write that last bit).