The Mindset Conflict Parents of Young Athletes Must Consider
A sport parent’s mindset towards their children matters tremendously. Particularly for the nearly 20% of U.S. parents who spend more than $12,000 a year on youth sports, per child. Generally speaking, parents of athletes choose one of two mindsets to drive their behavior. Either an investment mindset or an expense mindset.
If a parent is “investing” $12,000 a year for their child to play sports, then the parent’s behavior is more professional, as they want to manage that “investment” wisely. On the other hand, if that $12,000 is simply an expense, then the parent’s behavior is more casual, if not nonchalant as they want their child to just have fun.
Most parents don’t consciously make the decision to have a professional investment or casual expense mindset with the money they spend on their children. However, all parents do this subconsciously. Youth sports is roughly a $17 billion industry and rising. Parents are willfully pouring more and more money into this industry for a reason.
Undoubtedly, there is a large percentage of parents vying for college scholarships and professional contracts in their child’s future. These are the professional investor parents. All other parents are the casual expense parents.
Unfortunately, however, the parents who want the college scholarships and professional contracts most, are the most likely to turn their kids away from those goals. Specifically, this is true for the parents with the mindset that sports are an investment before their child starts high school. It’s in these youth sports years when a parent’s mindset has the biggest impact.
The Investor Mindset Does NOT Increase Your Chance for a Return on Investment in Sports
Research suggests that young athletes who go on to have the greatest amount of success in college and beyond started off playing sports at a young age not for money, fame, or titles, but simply for fun. Once a child establishes that they are playing for fun, then it’s at this point when the love of the game turns into self-motivation to compete to be the best.
This “playing for fun” phase of sports is often something parents with an investment mindset skip over. From day one, making sure every dollar spent on sports is the most important factor in decision making. Travel vs. recreational team is one of the first ways this mindset impacts decisions. Instead of a child participating with their friends on a non-competitive local rec-team, a choice is made to get their child on the best team possible that travels to compete with the best in the region or country. While this is not always a bad decision, it’s one that could lead to a series of other decisions that take the fun out of sports for a child.
All things being equal, it’s generally not a good idea to make decisions about youth sports with an investor’s mindset. On the other hand, I’m not saying flush money down the toilet in the name of fun either. Indeed, the best mindset is one that is driven by the child not by the parent. Once a young athlete becomes an investor in their sport, that’s when the parent can adopt this mindset. Until then, it’s best to treat youth sports as an expense.