Amidst the CPSU’s “Parents in Sport Week”, we want to take the chance to celebrate the Sport Structures parents working hard in the office and at home. One of the Sport Structures team uses sports to empower his daughter…
Ross’ Story
As two keen sportspeople, myself and my partner have always wanted to instil a passion for physical activity in our child as we think it is so important to build good habits from a young age. We have one daughter who is due to turn 2 this month and it’s fair to say she is pretty active. From a young age she showed a willingness to get moving and was an early crawler and walker. She is obsessed with climbing, balancing, jumping and generally testing the boundaries of what body can do. We’ve tried to encourage her gravitation to physical activity by allowing her to experiment with her body from an early age with a positive and laid-back approach (with plenty of bumps along the way), and later getting her involved in classes to teach these skills.
We’ve taken our daughter to activities including; soft play, football, tumble tots (early gymnastics essentially), swimming and forest schools. We were hampered a little by lockdowns and in these periods tried our best to get out in nature and go for walks. We figure the more exposure she can have to sport and physical activities the better and it will help build her strength and confidence. The football was a great experience because she wasn’t very confident at all in it (being the youngest and the only girl probably didn’t help) but we persevered and by the end she was running around and scoring goals. Although it wasn’t something she really enjoyed, we think it showed her that sometimes you need to be resilient and build confidence and it can come in time. On the flip side, at tumble tots and soft play she is a daredevil! She’s the kid that won’t go in the baby and toddler sections and skips straight to the kid’s areas to go on the big slides and the climb the highest apparatus. She took to these activities straight away and felt at home and confident and I don’t think she would let us stop her going to these now if we tried.
We think even at this young age our daughter has greatly benefited from her sport and physical activity experiences picking up skills that will serve her well for her life and we look forward to seeing what else she gravitates towards in the coming years.
The CPSU’s “Parents in Sport Week” looks to provide the information and tools to support parents on their journey to becoming a great sports parent and keeping children safe in sport. Parents like Ross show that sport can be a vehicle for a child’s personal growth. Through providing safe environments for children to explore, learn and gain the confidence and independence that will serve them greatly in the future.
For more details on the CPSU’s campaign click here: “Parents in Sport Week”
For more on keeping children safe in sport, visit our workshops: Safeguarding & Time to Listen