For the Team

January 1, 2025
What happened to playing catch for fun? Today, the average parent invests $883 on one child's primary sport per season, and in just one year, some families spend up to $20,000 per kid on athletics. Frank, a former soccer and basketball player and coach whose children played sports through high school, uses research, data, and personal experience to push for a healthier, more joyful approach. Parents should play with their young kids, throwing balls with them and loving them unconditionally. Then, when their offspring are older, instead of saying they're proud of them, which puts pressure on them, parents should say they admire their kids' effort. Most offspring will not head to the Olympics, and some parents will grieve and experience a "mourning of expectations." Frank promotes grace and empathy as she shares helpful-to-everyone tips, including the elements of well-being (positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment) and the secrets of inner peace (the ability to accept losses, to avoid undue fixation on transitory pleasures, and to foster a calm and balanced mind). This guide is a winner.

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