I am not sure when it happened, when the table tipped and the avalanche started, sometime in the 80's I suppose but it did and the youth of this country are worse off. Now my perspective is from a parent in large metropolitan area in the south but I think it is pretty much the same across the country except perhaps the small and largely rural areas. The table tipped, and youth sports are changed forever. In today's environment if you want to play soccer, baseball, football, or any other team sport you can pretty much only do it under the direct supervision of an adult, one who is 99% of the time has a kid on the team. Kids are no longer trying to organize their own sporting events, instead parents are spending a huge amount of time, money and effort on getting their future hall of fame athlete from one event to another. Practices for 9 year olds are 3 or 4 times a week, games well attended by the entire family, and usually at field or tournament that is hours away.
There are many things that I find upsetting about this, and we will get into that in later blogs. This fascination and expectation on youth sports puts the kid as the center of attention, as the most important member of the family if not universe, this I believe is not healthy for the kid. More later on this topic. The other upshot of this is that kids are no longer just getting together to play, to argue, settle their conflict, and learn how to manage their own affairs. Instead they are almost always under the direct supervision of an adult, that will quickly step in and set the world right. Kids can't organize their own games because they are all busy in an adult led league, being shuffled about by their parents. They simply are not enough kids home at the same time to get together to play.
The effect of all of this is that kids cannot be kids, they are not allowed to grow up with Daddy or Mommy looking over them and this is a big contributor to the fact that adolescence is now extending well into the 20's.
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