How early is too early?
If you’re anything like me, you want to give your child the best possible chance of being a successful, happy person. Most of us can probably recall being involved in some activity growing up, whether in school or not, such as sports, acting, singing or playing an instrument.We see the Olympic medalists, who started training as early as 3 or other professional athletes who are shown with a football or golf club in their hands at 4 years old. We hear of musicians who picked up the guitar or started playing the piano at the age of 2. And sometimes, as parents, we think we need to get our kids involved in something that early, just so they can be one of the few who make it big.
But how early is too early? I’ve been browsing some of the activities I can get my 2 1/2 -year-old involved in. So far, pretty much everything is offered to kids that age. I’ve seen tennis lessons, acting lessons, instrument and singing lessons, gymnastics coaching, T-ball teams, rodeo coaching and even golf lessons.
So how do I choose? And more importantly, how early should he start? I don’t want to be a pushy mom and have my child give up his childhood before it even starts (gymnasts come to mind, who as children, seem to spend every waking moment in the gym). And at 2 or 3 years old, do they even have the attention span or desire to be a participant? Or is it more for the parents’ satisfaction?
On the other hand, it also seems that getting kids involved early on may pave the way for them to crave being on sports teams in school or want to be first clarinet in the school band. They’ll know and want life outside the daily routine of home and school.
So I’d like to hear from parents on this. How early did you get your kids involved with activities? What made you decide to start them at that age?
Leave your comments here or email me at esmith@opubco.com. I’d love to hear from you.
~Erica Smith
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Comments
i think 4 is too early too much chance of burning out and not wanting to play at older age yes i agree that some kids will be behind those that started at a young age but they soon catch up if they can play ive seen too many parents think that they had to get kids ready for highschool sports and the fact is that only a small percent of the kids at any one age play highschool sports in baseball for instance say 5 kids out of any one class will make the varsity . 5×3 classes equal 15 kids on a team. so i think that sports should be run for the majority of the kids playing that year football players i think 7 gradew is plenty early to start
My son started soccer at 4. I don’t think that was too young. I think that was the right age. I’ve been coaching his teams, and kids who are just beginning to play at age 8 are so far behind the ones that started at 4 or 5 – it makes a big difference. At 4 and 5,The trick is how serious you take it. I’ve seen too many parents and coaches taking winning and competition too seriously too young. I don’t think we should be making parenting and coaching decisions with winning in mind until age 9 or 10. Bottom line – it’s part of our job to give them opportunities and offer things they might be interested in and can make them better people. We lean toward things that helped us grow. I’m a big believer in team sports to build character – that’s what I grew up on. Others enjoy individual skill development — equally valuable. Anything that pushes and challenges them in a positive way is good parenting, I think. The key phrase is “in a positive way.”