3 of my kids are boys who, post-Family, have discovered they just love sports. (For some reason, my girls have not been interested in sports.) My older boy played football and basketball in high school, though in college he has stuck to just intramurals as he finds college academics quite time-consuming. My younger two are now playing soccer and basketball both for their schools, and in locally organized teams as well. They also run track in the spring "to stay in shape" and have fun.

This was probably the first of the holdover Family teachings my boys seriously questioned- the idea that sports- particulary competition and organized teams, etc.- were inherently bad and taught bad values. I have to admit I kind of thought it was true that anything that valued "winning" over "losing" must be bad. And we all remember the examples given of horror stories of battles fought over lost soccer games in South America, etc. etc.

On the contrary, I have been so thankful over the last 6 years that the boys have gotten involved in their various teams. First of all, as newcomers to their school, getting involved in sports helped them make friends very quickly. Also, being a "sports parent" who watched their games, manned the concession booth, car pooled getting the kids to games when younger, etc. helped ME get to know the other parents in our small community. Even more importantly, these teams practice an hour or two daily after school (the varsity teams even longer).... and this is time that non-athletic boys often use to "hang out." I'd rather mine were exercising, learning the importance of teamwork, and being too busy after school to "hang out" (which often translates "get into mischief.") Also, they get such a feeling of accomplishment from being a part of their teams.

And, lo and behold, trying to win is not all that bad! In the real, non-Family world, doing your best and trying to be the best you can is a good value, not a bad one. It carries over into school, job, etc. And, once again in the real world, NO TEAM wins all the time, they also lose, and all kinds of good value lessons come from that too.

So, this was one of the first "Family teachings" that got debunked for me- and rather unwillingly, I must admit, my boys insisted I "get with it" on this, ha!

Laura