Children Trophys

In our increasingly sensitive society, it is becoming more and more common to sugar coat everyday situations. Everybody is so scared of of not being politically correct and of offend people that they change everything to accommodate to those who feel “attacked”. Parents are one of the biggest contributors to this problem. Every parent out there wants their child to be happy and feel special, which is normal and even healthy! However, the average parents idea of what makes a child feel special has been some what warped. Parents these days fear that if their child doesn't receive a trophy in a sporting event, that they will feel less special than the child that did. What they forget to consider though, is that a trophy received without hard work

Children learn life skills through many different activities that they participate in. Sport and other constructive activities used to teach many invaluable lessons to children such as teamwork, dedication, hard work and healthy praise expectations. Today I fear that many of those sought after attributes are no longer being encouraged which is damaging to today’s children. Many argue that when every child on the sporting team does not receive a trophy, that is what damages children's self esteem. However studies prove that is simply untrue and actually quite backwards. Giving children trophies in activities that they simply participate in teaches them that they should be rewarded even though they may not have put in the work that they should have to win. Children feel no need to strive to accomplish anything because they know that they will be rewarded no matter what. It takes out the sense of hard work and reward that children need to learn for good character and frankly, real life. If they don’t have to do anything for a reward, than many children's self worth sky rockets out of control. They believe that they are entitled to rewards for no work which is cancerous to society. Ashley Merryman, author of Losing Is Good for You, reports, “The self-esteem movement failed to teach kids how to succeed, and giving kids a participation trophy stunts their competitive edge.” Obviously, trophies should not be given out to all children as it teaches them that they do not have to work to achieve their goals. We should not reward kids for