Trophy Kids & Participation Trophy Parenting Research Paper

Introduction

Parenting is of importance. Baby literature, anxiety, maternity period, first reward/punishment are the crucial points in every parents’ lifetime. The standard issue lies not in the growing children up, but appropriate parenting throughout childhood and adolescence.

Unfortunately, many parents do not realize the damage (mental and psychological) they give to their children by numerous things. Most of the time, kids grow up with deviant behavior, abnormal desires or aptitudes due to parenting. For instance, a child is likely to be spoiled and careless about valuable matters if parents make allowances for them, shower them with a vast number of gifts, and give unlimited money once children ask. The question is whether such parenting deserves to take place or parents should re-build their vision and attitude to such serious aspect of life.

The paper sheds light on trophy kids and participation trophy parenting. It has become one of the worldwide problems in the modern world with all sources, money, and negligible behaviors. Hence, trophies are not trophies, but the way to “reward” a child which can lead to ineligible consequences.

The Basics of Trophy Generation

Every parent wants to have productive, happy, and healthy children. Indeed,  a human being lives to continue life, pass some wisdom, share well-rounded life experiences so that a kid will not be in need to let self into doing something out of morale. However, people do not notice and realize that they are, in fact, change their kids and spoil them in some ways.

First of all, trophy (or millennial) generation is this group of people who get used to getting “trophies” (both imaginary and real) for some actions or achievements, even if they are minor. Such children get rewards even if they do not achieve anything, just for participating, or because over-protective parents do not want to upset their offspring. Parents, especially mothers, are so caring and proud of their children that they are oblivious to cherishing kids. Hence, a trophy kid lives in the in-house world forgetting the reality. One psychologist, Levine Madeline, brings out (2012) in her book Teach Your Children Well: Parenting for Authentic Success that parents should teach children how to respect each other, encourage to achieve goals with support, find something satisfactory and enjoyable in life, and discover this golden balance between confidence and respect. However, trophy generations cannot reach this relief and core value of being with getting trophies every now and again. It is challenging to dig out this middle point for such kids when they can eventually realize that they are born to contribute something to the society, not to be puppets or so.

Moreover, mothers try to implement her uncompleted desires and dreams into their offspring, which unconsciously lead to over-parenting. Mothers, who see their children as extensions of themselves and, more important, living validations of their self-worth, value those who make them look wildly successful, especially to onlookers (Streep, para. 16). Consequently, parents make kids understand that they are valuable and worth getting rewards, money, gifts. However, the problem is that these children will later realize that they cannot accomplish their aims, purchase interests and dreams without trophies.

Besides, they do not know the meaning of early life, which is likely to affect adulthood. For example, a typical kid knows how to win or lose, how to face friendship or enmity, how to be happy with a victory and how to be down (but still ambitious) with a loss. Trophy generation does not deal with such issues since they know – parents will reward them anyway, so their struggles or challenges are not worth trying or worrying. Levine (2012) highlights that learning from mistakes is of importance for children. It implies that family should not interfere, because young creatures should deal with it on their own.

The Solution

A child is a human being that deserves to be treated well but with own decisions and thoughts. It is apparent that every individual wants to have confidence, high self-esteem, authority, and admire from others. It is not wrong to let a kid fail and face struggles in their ways, because life is about surviving and dealing with spontaneous situations. The only question is how to do it properly.

For instance, a kid plays a football match. He/she may lose or win, get an injury or be safe and sound. Also, a child should evaluate their skills and logical thinking during the game. Here are two types of occurring situations. One case is about participation trophy parents, who will reward their offspring in any way. It happens not because they want to cheer up based on good intentions, but because they have obsessive competition inside themselves, thus they over-cherish their flesh and blood. In the same breath, other parents will support with words, cuddles, and beliefs in the bright future of their children. In other words — much like in a soccer match where no one keeps score — when it comes to parenting, you cannot win. So maybe the real challenge is to relax and enjoy the game, even when you miss the ball (Bennet, para. 5).

There are some ways to sort out this problem:

Once a person gets into “trophy” way of life, it seems impossible to get rid or run away. However, it is possible with efforts and intentions to change the way parents grow up their children. Every individual should try the best ways and approaches to provide a decent and right life to offspring and do not regret at the end of the lifespan.

Conclusions

Indeed, the state-of-art community is increasingly widening with trophy kids, and occasionally it is challenging to study their behavior or work out efficient “therapies.” Encouraging and loving kids is not a crime, but over-parenting is bound to lead to the generation without core value of life. Thus it is essential to be careful and moreover, be ready to be moderate parents.

For example, in the movie Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (2009), a child was dull, incompetent, lazy, and sometimes rude. He got terrible marks, and he did not believe in himself saying “I am stupid.” However, the most significant thing his mother gave to him was love and support. Every day and night she forced him to study (to boost knowledge), encouraged him to read and write, supported him with words, and never doubted in his abilities. He won, he failed, he was shattered, and was delighted, but he did not forget about his mother’s support.

Ultimately, participation trophy parenting can affect children and lead to unwanted results. Every parent should realize the value of a kid, notice their ambitions, and never doubt their abilities and skills. Over-parenting will not succeed, but love and attention.

Works Cited

Bennet, James. “The Trophy Generation.” The Atlantic, July/August 2011 Issue. Retrieved from www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/07/the-trophy-generation/308542/.

Kuhn, Eric. “Trophy Kids in the Workplace: An Interview with Author Ron Alsop.” Huffington Post, May 25, 2011. Retrieved from www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-kuhn/trophy-kids-in-the-workpl_b_147348.html.

Levine, Madeline. Teach Your Children Well: Parenting for Authentic Success. 1st ed. Harper, 2012.

Streep, Peg. “The Trophy Child.” Psychology Today, May 10, 2017. Retrieved from www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/tech-support/201705/the-trophy-child.

Stupi, Amanda. “Beyond Grades and Trophies, Teaching Kids the Definition of Success.” KQED, Aug. 24, 2012. Retrieved from www.kqed.org/mindshift/23470.

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016.

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

freeessays.club (2016) The terms offer and acceptance [Online].
Available at:

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]
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