Growing Up Catholic Parent Conversations Good Sports Six Parent Small Group Sessions on Youth Sports

Gather your parents for faith-sharing and conversation while their children are in faith formation classes!

These small group sessions for parents are about where the rubber meets the road: the challenges and joys of parenting today. Here is a great way your parish or school can accompany your parents as they fulfill their important vocation.  Help your parents enter into meaningful conversations about how their faith informs their parenting and way of life and connect with other parents. In our experience, when you gather parents to discuss issues such as these, it's hard to get them to stop talking!

View all parent session resources here.

When should we first sign our children up for sports? If our child doesn’t play on this team this season, will he be able to keep up next season? Is the money outlay for the travel team worth it? What do we do with our other children when one is playing in a weekend tournament? Are we the only ones feeling like we are at the mercy of our kids’ sports schedules?

Such are the questions many parents are asking today-sometimes out loud, but more often silently to themselves-about the world of youth sports. Parents who have a faith commitment have other questions about children’s sports experiences too. Do we skip Mass for Sunday games? Even if we have the resources, are the expenses what we are meant to spend our money on? What about families who can’t afford for their children to play elite sports? Where do youth sports fall in our family’s values and priorities?

Many Catholic families today skip Mass on Sunday mornings because of their children’s sports commitments. However, this is just a symptom of a much broader dilemma facing families when it comes to participation in the world of youth athletics. These sessions explore the impact that competitive youth sports programs are having on families today, including some of the emotional, psychological, physical, and spiritual effects. It gently raises questions and invites parents to reevaluate what choices are healthy and balanced for their children, and affirms that sometimes counter-cultural decisions may be in everyone’s best interest.

The sessions include:

1. Potential and Perils
   • What Does Faith Have to Do with Youth Sports? - Pope Francis and the possibilities and challenges of sports.
   • Gifts and Benefits of Youth Sports - Opportunities for growth, competence, humility, and healthy bodies.
   • Perils of Youth Sports - Pressure, overscheduling, overuse injuries, and fear.
2. It's All About Balance
   • Balance for the Child Athlete - Is it "just a game"? When parents place too much importance on youth sports.
   • Balance for the Whole Family - When sports come first: balance with family, self-care, and school.
3. What Are Sports Teaching Our Kids?
   • The Good - Personal growth, being gracious with teammates, and developing virtues.
   • The Bad and the Ugly - Adult bad sports, deprioritizing faith, putting sports first, and setting limits.
4. Sport, Money, and Faith
   • When There Are Limited Resources - How much is enough? What about families who have less?
   • A Widening Gap: Club Sports and Travel Teams - Counting the cost, noticing peer pressure, and making tradeoffs.
5. Are Kids Allowed to Be Kids?
   • The Importance of Boredom - Unscheduled time and the advantages of informal play.
   • The Risk of Burnout - When children feel trapped and can't quit.
6. How Could Life Be Different?​​​​​​​
   • Setting Healthy Limits - When parents let coaches call the shots. Freedom from and freedom for.
   • Preserving Some Breathing Room - Being the parent your child needs, prioritizing Mass, and letting sports be sports.