How was your weekend and Monday? Ours was fine…we had great time at home and out! And today, we went to CJ’s school to attend the Parents-Teacher Conference, our schedule  was with his afternoon English Teacher…we arrived 30 minutes earlier and Isabelle’s with us, she had good time—she really enjoyed being inside the school, she had fun playing in the playground and watching kids learning how to swim, she even had chance to went inside Kuya’s room and see some books! CJ made us happy with what his teacher said…we’re proud of you, son! Keep up the good work…and will be posting more about this!

Anyway, after sharing with you 3 stages of boyhood, all about testosterone, helping your boy to be a new kind of man, what dads can do,  mothers and son, how to develop a healthy sexuality for boys and revolution in schooling from the book Raising Boys by Steve Biddulph. Today, I will be sharing with you about boys and sports.

For most boys, sport is a huge part of life. It can do them a lot good, can give them a sense of belonging, develop character and boost self-esteem and good health. But it can also harm them, it can cripple them in body, warp them in mind, teach them bad values, and lead to a crushing sense of failure.

So, here are some tips from the books:

• Sport can have huge benefits for children. It gives exercise, fun, challenges and a sense of achievement. It specially provides a shared interest between fathers and sons, and between boy and men generally.
• Sports is often a great way of building character, learning about life and developing masculinity.
• Unfortunately, sports is changing for the worse. The culture of some sports encourages negative traits like aggression, egotism, sexual crudity and binge drinking. And ‘winning at all costs’ is replacing sportsmanship and the pleasure of playing the game for its own sake.
• When competition and winning are made so important, it is dangerous to be talented, because your life can become unbalanced. Playing sport too competitively often leads to lifelong injuries.
• Emphasizing competition excludes many kids who are not so talented.
• Sport must be participatory, safe, non-elitist and fun for everyone. Boys needs sport. We must not let it be spoiled by commercial forces or toxic leadership.

Sports means respect—in most industrial nations today, it is virtually a sacred activity. No religion comes close in its passion, the sheer number of adherents or its power to inspire. So, for every parent of boys, dealing with sport is a major interest and challenge!

Good luck for all of us parents!