Show Notes
In this episode of Healthy Sports Parents, Jonathan Carone sits down with psychiatrist and author Dr. Curt Thompson to explore why sports parenting can feel so personal and why a child’s performance can bring out emotions parents never expected.
Dr. Thompson explains how parents carry their own family history, insecurities, shame, and unfinished business into their children’s sports experiences, often without realizing it. They discuss why parents can deeply love their kids and still respond in unhealthy ways, how generational patterns show up on the sidelines, why praising effort matters, and how curiosity can help parents stay connected to their children regardless of what happens on the scoreboard.
This conversation goes deeper than sideline behavior and serves as an invitation for sports parents to understand their own stories, recognize the patterns they’ve inherited, and consider who they are becoming while helping their kids grow through sports.
In this episode:
Why a child’s sports performance can feel so personal to a parent How family-of-origin patterns influence sports parenting Why parents sometimes repeat behaviors they experienced as kids Breaking generational cycles without simply blaming previous generations The difference between praising effort and praising results Why curiosity can be more valuable than evaluation after a game How shame and performance can become connected Why connection with a child matters more than the scoreboard What parents can learn about themselves through youth sports
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MORE FROM DR. THOMPSON:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/curtthompsonmd/ Website: https://curtthompsonmd.com/ Podcast: https://www.thebeingknownpodcast.com/
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