I hate the cliche of 'just have fun,' but what I've seen in today's sports, especially with parents, is they put so much pressure on the kids.
Our kids now face pressures that didn’t exist when I was growing up…. As parents, it’s very hard to help our children because their experiences are so different to anything we had.
When I played, sometimes we would have one game in a week; now there are no free moments, no time, not even for family.
I get a lot of parents coming up to me, telling me they are grooming their kids to be professional athletes. I'm really against that. I think it's a great life, and yeah, you can lead them in that direction. I think a lot of parents live their lives through the kids. Because they didn't make it, they want their kids to make it. It puts a lot of undue pressure on the kids.
I think it's important to let kids be kids and be cautious about accelerated sexuality as pressure to mature too quickly. My hackles go up when I see a teacher making kids feel like they are older, special, mature. Let kids be kids.
It's a form of bullying, in my opinion, to make sure that your kid gets the best grades, the best jobs and all that sort of stuff. I just want my child to be happy. I want him to do his best and trust God in the rest, but I'm not going to bully him.
If you put pressure on your kids to book every audition, they won't enjoy it anymore, and they won't book it, either. Also, if they don't want to go to an audition, they shouldn't be forced to go. They have to want to do it.
That said, let me add that Joan and I never want him to be a child actor. We both feel that it takes away their childhood and puts untold pressure on children.
I didn't want to raise my kids in this weird, sycophantic society. If you have celebrity parents, it's not a good recipe for the kids, or anyone at any age.
We put so much pressure on kids to excel in school at such a young age.
