by Lindsay Weiss posted in Parenting

For those of you dreaming about what sports your kids will play one day, let me tell you something I wish I?d known. As a mom with kids in three vastly different competitive sports -- soccer, baseball, and cheer ? it occurred to me (while sitting at my eleventy billionth baseball game last weekend) that standing by and watching them ?fail? is one of the hardest parts of my job. It?s also one of the best things I can do... just sit there quietly.
Watching your 10-year-old pitch terribly and give up a six-run lead, causing his team to lose, is like someone dragging a fork across a chalkboard FOR THREE SOLID INNINGS.

Watching your daughter fall to the ground (first praying she?s okay) and knowing immediately it will cost the team a bid to nationals is like a hot poker going straight through your heart.
I want to be clear about "failure" here; I'm not encouraging anyone to keep their kid in a sport they are not enjoying or don't have any aptitude for. Repeated failure with little success does not build confidence. But if your kiddo enjoys a sport and wants to work at it, there are going to be great days, okay days and terrible days. They are going to make dumb mistakes and view them as failures, even though they are not. We have to allow them to do it, so they can learn.
I?ve read all the articles about how we, as parents, should be supportive as kids fail and simply tell them ?I just love to watch you play? versus making it ab...