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📝 Karsten Miller (MFVAllSportsNetwork)

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When you’re a leader, coach, or referee; how do you handle the parent bringing a lot of toxicity to a sports program? What you may want to do in your mind may not be the wisest of options. So here are five things that will help:

1 – SET BOUNDARIES 

Make clear what is expected and what’s not tolerated. Stick to those declarations, even if a parent says or tries to do otherwise. Toxic parents want their agenda to strive, make it absolutely evident such will get no life here.

2 – BE PROFESSIONAL
Do not react immediately at the time something negative takes place.  Remain calm first, and deal with incidents appropriately in a timely manner.

3 – TEAM FOCUS
Do not go off on a revenge tour if a parent attacks you. Don’t let their behavior be the topic of your team speeches etc. Stay focused on the team and their goals: THAT IS WHAT TRULY MATTERS!!!!

4 – DOCUMENT & REPORT
Take note and document EVERY incident that occurs. Gather evidence, and report things to the proper school/program authorities. Sad to say things do have to sometimes go to this level. IT IS NOT SNITCHING, don’t let that lie trample the PROTECTION you’re providing the team.

5 – PROTECT PEACE

Don’t allow parental toxics to drain your energy. Build your mental. If they suck the life out of you, they will drain your teams too. Joining coaching groups/supportive initiatives aligned with the same purpose helps relieve some of their stresses and offers solutions to toxicity.

Not every parent is toxic. A lot of families in the DMV athletic community want to see the building up and success of their team.  We’ll discuss next time how to foster such great encouragement.  Thank you for taking the time to read this article.