Successful Parenting

As your child heads back to school, her calendar is probably quickly filling up with school activities, sport practices and games, and that doesn't even include her social calendar or time spent on homework. Most kids these days are being pulled in a hundred different directions.  Two-time Olympic cyclist Erin Mirabella believes a child will be much happier, confident and less stressed out when she makes the decision to prioritize her activities and let some things go and that trying to do everything may be a recipe for mediocrity.

Today's sports moms do much more than juggle schedules and drive athletes to and from games. Moms are committed to going the extra mile to ensure that their kids are well-rested, well-nourished, well-hydrated and mentally prepared to perform at their best, both in the classroom and on the playing field.  To help your kids achieve peak performance, here's a ten-point "game plan" to address time, nutrition and performance concerns.

One of the best ways to help your kids stay organized so they can perform at their best in sports is to make sure they have a well-equipped sports bag, which is easy to fill, store and grab. 

Having a child playing sports, or two or three, can be a logistical and organizational challenge even for the most organized mom.  Here are twenty ways to mange your time and money during the helter skelter of a youth sports season.

Youth sports may have become more and more about competition and winning, but kids are, in a word, still kids: the number one reason they play sports is still to have fun, and, even at the high school level, most would still rather get playing time on a losing team than sit on the bench of a winner.

In rejecting the argument that competitive cheer at Quinnipiac Univeristy was a sport, a federal court in Connecticut agreed with the federal Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights' (OCR) that its criteria for qualifying as a sport - including having a defined season and spending more time competing than supporting other teams - had not been met.  

Talking to your child's coach is almost always a stressful experience, regardless of the issue. As with any meeting, it's good to do your homework and make sure you have considered alternatives.  You might just find that talking to the coach isn't a good idea after all.