


Advice for Tennis Moms and Dads

Once, before one of my sons' tennis matches, I ran into my friend, Lauren, who was dropping off her son, Henry, for the same match. As Henry and my sons dashed off to play, I told her, "I'll wait until you park, and we can walk over to the court together."  She looked at me dejectedly. "I won't be staying to watch Henry's game," she said. "He told me in the car on the way over that he didn't want me to come anymore."

Henry was only eight, yet he had strong opinions about who could attend his matches.  I couldn't understand his reasons, and when I asked Lauren, she was as perplexed as I was.  I started ticking off a list of possibilities for Lauren.





Negative Labels

In the car after the matches, Henry and my three boys were celebrating how well they had played. Henry was a bit sad that his mom hadn't been there to see him play, as he had won over higher ranked opponent. I asked him why she had gone home. "Well, it's a long story," Henry said, "but I don't like her to see me play poorly.  In my last match, I was really messing up my serves.  My mom tried to tell me what I did wrong, and I didn't like it.  She's never played tennis and doesn't even know the rules."


Every child will have good tennis matches and bad tennis matches, so keep in mind a couple of points:


  • Just like you after a hard day at work, kids just want to relax after a tennis match or practice; it usually isn't the best time to talk to them.  If you want to talk about the game, do it when your child isn't stressed or thinking about the game he just played. Children need to be given the space to process the experience on their own and then move on.