>"who are subject to the same amount of physical and mental stress and grueling 12 hour practices while making welfare wages. "
They aren't subject to anything. They choose.
They aren't subject to anything. They choose.
I don't really get the line on "forcing/coercing" children. If your child would end up a drug addict, would you just let her be? Why is it any different with computer gaming addiction?
Parenting is not an exception, it is not a different world where values change. It is just the same world, with people caring or not for others, with some responsibility and affection. It's just a bit more acute and produce good counter examples to those believing one should not care about others.
My third kid was born yesterday. I'm still getting drunk with friends once a week, I do my hobbies in the evening (programming, pictures, music), I spend very good moments with the kids, I let them grow and make sure they have plenty of different thing for their curiosity, gosh I even played gta with my 5yo boy, but I certainly would never encourage any of them to try to become a professional sport player, or e-sport. Or model. Or musician. The odds of having an happy life in these domains is infinitesimal.
The equation for happiness is simple. First of all you need your basic necessities covered, things like food, shelter, clothing, access to health care, plus interactions with other human beings and the possibility of having sex from time to time. Then your expectations have to be smaller than your achievements. When this doesn't happen, it's a recipe for depression.
It's easy to see how sports can lead to unhappiness, but to make matters worse, when comparing soccer or basketball or volley to e-sports, at least from those sports you get a healthy body out of it ;-)
If we were to look at football and basketball sports' effect on children, and how pervasive and time-consuming it is to normal teens/young-adults the same way we do when it comes to "e-sports", then we'd be positively disgusted (a bit of extrapolation there).
Furthermore, most traditional sports also improve one's physiological health. This is not the case for e-sports where one is simply sitting in a chair all day. I can understand why a parent would be more concerned about their kid that doesn't leave his computer than their kid that plays three sports a year.
But in both e-sports and traditional sports you have the risk of sacrificing too much for the sake of the game. I have known many athletes in both camps that have done this.
In fact, it seems it does. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/does-heading-a-soc...
Yeah, I probably could just do weightlifting and cardio on their own (and will sometime have to transition to this) but to be honest football is my primary motivation for doing these things in the first place. A lot of competitive athletes make a successful transition from competitive play to less injurious activities after their careers and are none the worse for it. (Minus NFL concussion cases...)
There are also intangible benefits to playing competitive sports. Being part of a team, working hard to achieve a goal, being challenged, pushing your limits, pursuing something you're passionate about, succeeding at an elite level... Sports can give you unique experiences you'll treasure for your lifetime and also shape you as a person.
It really is an optimization between the all the trade offs. Every year I have to weigh what the sport gives me and what the sport takes away and decide whether it's my last season.