On the behavior of parents at kids sports events
Pete Brown writes:
I think parents who do this kind of stuff must feel like their kids’ performance on the court or the field reflects on their own performance as a parent.
[…]
You’re an adult. Grow up. You are there to support your kid, not make them feel like shit because you want to re-live your glory days or look good in front of your friends or achieve second-hand what you wished you could have done yourself.
I think all those are valid but I think he’s missing one, that parents feel some need for their kid to excel. He hits that idea a bit with the last part:
… achieve second-hand what you wished you could have done yourself
I think though that for some people it’s just wanting their kids to be better at something than they were, the same way most of us (at least I hope most of us) want our children to do better in many other areas of life than we did.
That doesn’t excuse the behavior of course and if that is the reason you’re hardly going to show your child that by yelling at them in public.