Does parent pressure ever achieve anything?

Our children are entering a world which is growing increasingly competitive from a young age. The financial burdens that our children will inherit as they grow up is causing parents to put ever more importance on their child’s education and upbringing.

Parents are aware of the world their child will grow into: the financial debt of education, ever increasing housing costs and a growing population leading to greater competition for jobs.

Children are under pressure from both parents and schools alike to succeed.

Veena Raghva, student counsellor at Abu Dhabi Indian School, said parents often have unrealistic expectations of their children.

“I see many students who are emotionally and even physically tortured by their parents for not scoring good marks. For them nothing less than the best would do,” said Raghva.

According to her, most children are made to feel they are loved and appreciated only if they top the class. So in order to win their parents’ love and teachers’ recognition, they struggle hard. (source: Gulf news, June 2016 )

It is one thing to place your child under pressure in an educational environment. Some may argue educational attainment determines college admission and in turn has a major effect on the rest of their child’s life.

Yet to place a similar level of pressure on their child in a sporting environment can be incredibly damaging to both the child and the child’s relationship with the parent. Our children in Doha get very little exercise and activity as it is. Should parents try to control the one/ two hours a week they do get?

We have to be wary that children don’t grow to resent their parents for this pressure; in the same manner children resent the educational exams system. This one hour a week may be the child’s only time to truly relax and socialise in a care free environment. Sport activities should be seen as a release for our children. A chance to escape from the stress and pressure of growing up with constant exams.

Luckily here at Future Football we explain this to our parents, and our parents jump right on board with by encouraging of our stress free approach! Future Football accepts that is a 99% chance we will not produce the next Lionel Messi. Our goal is to a create a fun and loving environment where children can express themselves in the company of their friends.

We see in our age 2- 4 category just how useful sport can be at building parent and child relationships. In these sessions the parents take part in some sessions to help their child grow into this new exciting football environment.  A positive effect of this is how shown with just how many parents comment on their enjoyment with partaking in a session that involved bonding with their child.

We must ask ourselves whether a parent needs to analyse, comment and provide constant scrutiny on their child's performance i education and sport alike. A child is able to evaulate their own perofrmance in almost all situations of sport. They don't need the added pressure of a parents hard judgment. So in sport, please just let your child play!

If you are interested in us here at future football and would like you child to start coming to our classes, please fill out the link below:

https://futurefootball.wufoo.com/forms/sg55tk70sg8g4o/

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