This image has been making well-deserved rounds in social media the past few days. Whenever I witness or even hear about parents and adults behaving like this, I cringe. I cringe because it happened to me – and even all these years later, still brings back some very hurtful memories.
I was 11 years old playing on a team in my town’s recreational softball league. I had been playing softball since I was about five and I loved it. I was a decent player – a good fielder and an okay hitter. I mostly was a pitcher, much to my mom’s chagrin. She didn’t like that there was all that pressure on me to literally be “pitch perfect.” Though it was stressful, I told her that it was worth it for the huge self-confidence boost I got any time I had a good game and our team won the game.