As a child, I played sports. I played Baseball ( which I loved), soccer (which I hated, but have grown to love), basketball (which I sucked at), and I took karate (which I also sucked at). In each one of those sports, we never won gold, yet i have a collection of trophies perched atop my window sill commemorating my participation in those sports. The more I think about it, the more it irks me, the more it angers me. It's rather patronizing, in my opinion, to not have earned something, but have it given to you anyway. It makes the trophy relatively meaningless, so what's the point in getting one? I suppose that's where my enormous sense of pride comes from. I don't want anything handed to me if I didn't earn it. Let the kids cry, it will pass. It will build character, it will make them try harder, do better. If you shield them from that, you're failing as a parent.
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[–] X____sign_here____ ago
When I was in 7th grade I was forced to play a sport. There are no team sports I like, I don't follow them, I don't even really know the rules to most games. I just have never had interest in them. Also, I'm not big on running around after a ball. I was always the more artistic, chase the girls, play the music, kind of guy.
I picked football because I had friends on the team.
I didn't know the rules (still don't) and no one bothered to teach me - and I didn't bother to learn. I sat on the bench for every game except the few times the coach put me out to get clobbered as cannon fodder. I really had no business being there.
At the end of the season I was given a small trophy, MVP. The other kids that sucked on the team got one as well. Even then I realized it was bullshit. I wasn't valuable to the team. I wasn't a player. I NEVER even touched a game ball. I sat on my ass during games. I sucked at the game and I really didn't care. The trophy was just some shallow gesture. What was the point of giving it to me? Who did they think they were fooling? Did they think I was going to keep it, uncover it from a box in my adulthood, and look back fondly on my time playing football?
I don't remember what happened to the trophy. I don't recall having it at home. I probably just left it there.
[–] WildThingSammiT [S] ago
Precisely. It never made sense to me as a child, and it makes no sense now.