Quote:
Originally Posted by Flasch186
The only thing I really struggle to manage (and there's a lot so this sentence doesn't make a ton of sense) is the negative words about himself.
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I've been around young athletes in various guises for about 40 years and the single most disturbing/distressful/unnerving experience I've had was standing just near enough to hear the running monologue that a young (HS) female tennis teammate of harangued herself with through every match. I don't think I've ever been more concerned about the ... emotional well-being(?) of a kid that was not my own. No major off-court issues afaik, but it genuinely frightened me.
I say that simply to TRY to say this: it IS a hard thing to hear, exponentially worse I'm sure if it's your own child. So struggling with it as a parent is certainly reasonable afaic. Don't let not knowing the perfect one-button solution get you down, there's great value in simply making the effort. Like most all things parenting, there's on the job training involved.