When I drew this cartoon I was thinking about the pressure to perform that some kids face. I am not from a sports-minded family and I probably passed that same lack of interest on to my kids. It’s not that I wasn’t interested in competition. It’s just that there weren’t very many traveling art competitions and ultra competitive writing conferences at my elementary school. (sure, there were spelling bees. I never made it past “pneumonia.”)
When I googled “early traveling sports teams,” several articles came up including this one on ultra competitive sports teams. There was also this one on The Trouble with Travel Sports Teams. There is something that rubs me wrong with a preteen being on a hyper competitive or ultra competitive league. Let’s let our kids grow up a little and give them a chance to play for fun before they go for the blood, guts and glory.
The same thing goes for traveling art leagues, ultra competitive writing competitions, and spelling bees.
I drew this cartoon for Kidzmatter Magazine.
