NT Parents, Participation Trophies?

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If your kids are in activites do they get trophies for just participating?  How do you feel about that, do you think it's doing them a disservice?

 
lmao....maybe when they are like super young when they first start the kids in sports. 

but nah...so many life lessons are learned in youth sports. losing is one of the greatest lessons learned. 
 
America is a nation of suburban insurance salesmen, who cling to some notion of a golden age of lost manhood. Every conservative and a number of liberal men have latched onto this meme of hating athletic participation trophies. Yelling at your putative son for not dominating his seven to nine year old league does not make you a "real man." There is nothing honorable or tough or "old school" about aggressively trying to live your own, unfulfilled lost athletic dreams through your children.

In a country with rampant childhood obesity, I am all for incentivizing kids to get off the xBox for a bit and play some sports. Your balls will not atrophy, "the Chinese" will not conquer us and American males will not become weak and feminine if we decide to give some little trophy to a preteen who has the temerity to actually attend every practice during his short youth league season.

Those people, who actually think, understand that castigating participation trophies does not make you a real man. It makes you an adult who wants to bully children.
 
trophies are poor substitutes for winning or participation, in general...winners should be given money or something like a trip (if within reason/budget)
 
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Maybe when they're young ..

Idk. I feel like as they grow older they'll learn that you aren't entitled to anything so participation awards won't really matter.
 
 
trophies are poor substitutes for winning or participation, in general...winners should be given money or something like a trip (if within reason/budget)
We talkin about kids man.

KIDS!
America is a nation of suburban insurance salesmen, who cling to some notion of a golden age of lost manhood. Every conservative and a number of liberal men have latched onto this meme of hating athletic participation trophies. Yelling at your putative son for not dominating his seven to nine year old league does not make you a "real man." There is nothing honorable or tough or "old school" about aggressively trying to live your own, unfulfilled lost athletic dreams through your children.

In a country with rampant childhood obesity, I am all for incentivizing kids to get off the xBox for a bit and play some sports. Your balls will not atrophy, "the Chinese" will not conquer us and American males will not become weak and feminine if we decide to give some little trophy to a preteen who has the temerity to actually attend every practice during his short youth league season.

Those people, who actually think, understand that castigating participation trophies does not make you a real man. It makes you an adult who wants to bully children.
THANK YOU!

People take youth sports way too seriously.

It should only be about participation and not winning until your at the varsity level.

When I look back there was a hand full of guys on my peewee squad who didn't even see the field unless it was practice 
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Youth sports are great but if your using a youths sports award to teach your child life lessons you've already failed as a parent.
 
As a side bar, I am also amazed that American men, the great masses of exoburban spread sheet makers, believe that entitlement and masculinity are mutually exclusive. The fact is that traditional masculinity is simply a variation on the theme of entitlement. a great general is entitled to kill his enemies, a great businessman is entitled to acquire a firm and decimate it incumbent workforce, a "player" is entitled to ravage a female body, a "good cop" is entitled to destroy and kidnap the body of a marginalized person, a strong leader is entitled to denigrate and ruin as many other persons as he sees fit.

The idea that believing in perfect meritocracy makes you a man is an invention of the American ruling class. Telling your sons that, amid a rigged game, those who work hard, will receive commensurate compensation is simply an absurd and destructive lie. If you want to be a real man, be entitled, divert that entitlement from the victimization of women and vulnerable people and turn that masculine entitlement into a campaign to reclaim dignity for workers.
 
As a side bar, I am also amazed that American men, the great masses of exoburban spread sheet makers, believe that entitlement and masculinity are mutually exclusive. The fact is that traditional masculinity is simply a variation on the theme of entitlement. a great general is entitled to kill his enemies, a great businessman is entitled to acquire a firm and decimate it incumbent workforce, a "player" is entitled to ravage a female body, a "good cop" is entitled to destroy and kidnap the body of a marginalized person, a strong leader is entitled to denigrate and ruin as many other persons as he sees fit.

The idea that believing in perfect meritocracy makes you a man is an invention of the American ruling class. Telling your sons that, amid a rigged game, those who work hard, will receive commensurate compensation is simply an absurd and destructive lie. If you want to be a real man, be entitled, divert that entitlement from the victimization of women and vulnerable people and turn that masculine entitlement into a campaign to reclaim dignity for workers.
Now you lost me.
 
I work for a production company that gives out a "Judge's Choice" award aka participation award aka thanks for trying award to the contestants who scored really low.


From a business stand point:


At the end of the day if you've payed to have your child in some type of talent show, sport, or competition it's just a way of for the company to show appreciation for spending your money to compete at our event.


From a future father stand point:


Hell naw don't give my son that nonsense. If he didn't place in the top 3 then don't give him a false sense of accomplishment. That doesn't mean I wouldn't be proud of his efforts but c'mon fam
 
Now you lost me.

I am sorry my last post was a bit convoluted. Basically it breaks down like this: in America "entitlement" is a dirty word. At the same time, being a "real man" is exalted. That is odd because the markers of being a "real man" are all based on having an entitlement mentality. Everything that is traditionally masculine involves the belief that someone else has something that ought to be yours and you, as a real man go at take that thing.

We venerate a tough cop or soldier who seizes the body of another human being. We celebrate the "player" who is able to gain quick access to the female body. We laud businessmen who make money by any means at their disposal, no matter the human costs.

If you want your son to be a legendary policeman, great general, pick up artist or captain of industry, you should engender as much of a sense of entitlement as possible. Entitlement is the basis for every traditional masculine role.
 
My theory is participation trophies were always for the parents that spent all of their time/money/weekends being involved with their kids performances.
 
Their kids 
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Probably the same dudes planning on when your gonna stop showing your kids love because it "makes em soft".
Hell naw don't give my son that nonsense. If he didn't place in the top 3 then don't give him a fals sense of accomplishment. That doesn't mean I wouldn't be proud of his efforts but c'mon fam
So your more concerned with your sons placement then you are him being involved? 
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 And if your child isn't smart enough to know the difference between a participation award and a champ​ionship that's on you. 
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I don't get this false sense of accomplishment argument.

It's funny what NT decides to take stands on.
 
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Their kids :lol:

Probably the same dudes planning on when your gonna stop showing your kids love because it "makes em soft".
its ridiculous.

my kid shouldnt get rewarded for getting kicked in the face by 40 everygame just bc they tried.

real world dont work like that. i think it teaches kids entitlement. scared to tell a kid no.
 
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I'm surprised this has become a big thing :lol: it was all over fb & Twitter.

If your child is smart, he's not gonna feel good about riding the bench & getting a trophy anyway. If your kids are complacent, that's on YOU.

I played in a church basketball league before I got involved w/ AAU. I was trash, only played because the coach had to and I knew that even at 9 years old. Got a trophy for doing nothing but I still knew I had lots of work to do.

Why? My pops. He was like a God in pickup. Left-handed with a jumper and handles. Very hard to guard. Even today he's 60 and only good for two games but he STILL gets buckets. He knew I was complete trash for my age.

But No he didn't chastise me, throw my trophy in the garbage, or diss the trophy in any way. He basically told me, "hey if we work on this this & this then you'll get to play more."
 
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its ridiculous.

my kid shouldnt get rewarded for getting kicked in the face by 40 everygame just bc they tried.

real world dont work like that. i think it teaches kids entitlement. scared to tell a kid no.
I don't get how the two equate.

Kid/team not talented at all but are out there tryin and playing.

Kid/team get smoked on the regular.

Coach hands kid participation award at the end of the season.

Kid/team have learned that they will live their life getting something for nothing?

I'm 29 and can tell you my mom has about 10 trophies from peewee leagues where we didn't win a chip.

Never once did I feel entitled 
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9/10 them kids don't even care about the trophy, I know I didn't.

I think this comes from a place of insecurity within the parents themselves tbh.

Not talking about you personally but we all want our kids to do better in life then we are so they kind of over parent on things like this which if you took the time to look back at your own life you know this holds no value.
 
I think the trophies are for the parents, and it's BS. No 6 or 7 year old cares about a trophy. Now that I read over my og post it looks like I'm blaming the kid but my post was more directed at the parents.
 
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You cannot condemn someone for enacting their philosophy of parenting, then point the finger at the parents years down the road when something goes astray with the individual.
 
 
We talkin about kids man.

KIDS!

THANK YOU!

People take youth sports way too seriously.

It should only be about participation and not winning until your at the varsity level.

When I look back there was a hand full of guys on my peewee squad who didn't even see the field unless it was practice 
sick.gif


Youth sports are great but if your using a youths sports award to teach your child life lessons you've already failed as a parent.
thats cool but your child is never going to make the varsity team with that attitude. 

theres valuable lessons to be learned when a kid puts all his hard work and dedication to be good at a sport in winning and in losing. 

its not about your child being the best and living vicariously through that child. a great lesson is taught when you put all your hard work in to something and you still come up short or if you do everything you can to be successful and you win. 

there is no value in a participation trophy and kids know that even at a young age. 

im sure i received a participation trophy when i was younger but i dont remember that at all..i remember times where we won and times where we lost. 

i always thought participation trophies were more to appease the parents. 
 
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I'll give you a pat on the back and an attaboy or attagirl for participating, but not a trophy. Never that.




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