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Winning or Losing: How to Communicate with Children after a Football Game? Tips for Parents

How to Communicate with Children after the Football Game? Tips for Parents

 
Watching kids play a game of football can be very emotional for sport parents. Even more so for their children. When the game is over, most parents try to talk with their loved ones with good intentions. Trouble is when the match is just finished, children’s emotions are still playing the game. Depends on the outcome of the game (win or loss), children can be happy, smile or angry, frustrated and upset. Therefore, is good to wait until child emotional state back to normal. Then knowing what to say and how to say it keep the channels of communication open between parents and the child. Based on my coaching experience below are the tips for communicating with your child following a great win or really tough loss:
 
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  1. Accepting kids just as they are makes talking with them easier (that also means respecting their feelings and emotions). When child feel his /her emotional state are accepted is more prepare to share their feelings and views about the game later. In other words, child is ready to talk about the game.
  2. Instead of talking, be a good observer, try to understand child emotional state, his/her feelings. This should give you an idea if they ever want to talk about the game or not. How often do you try to evaluate your child’s performance, and if so, why do you do that? Does it really help? Have you considered leaving this part entirely for the coach and you just became a great source of positive encouragement? That way child will be grateful for your support and respect the fact, that you able to see the person and let the coach see more about the player.
  3. Have you ever compare your child to others? No child will like that. This will only put unnecessary psychological pressure, make feel less value than others and in consequences lost a large amount of self-believe and self-confidence. Avoiding this will allowed child communicate more openly and honestly.
  4. Always focus and let the child know what they did well. They will recognize and respect that you see their strengths and you support them.
  5. If your child suffers a tough loss – let the child know, that he /she is valued as a person and no losing nor winning the game of football will ever change that.
  6. Having your own emotions under control will allow your child to recognize that you are one of the good sport parents. This itself will increase their willingness to talk with you about the game.