agreed. Please tell this to the teenagers who have the knees, ankles, and backs of geriatric patients because their poor bodies have been overtaxed. These are the kids who are good, not great, and end up "rounding out" the travel teams. Then I get them in high school and they've had major surgeries/been put on…

Dude, I was always happy with orange slices and ice cream at the end of the last game. I was on a team (no idea what sport, we wore green), but man, I loved me some running around for fun, getting orange slices and getting dirty.

I LOVE socialist indoctrination. I HATE participation trophies. They're so disingenuous.

D'aww. I feel really strongly about this and it's the approach I will be taking with any future children and what my fiance and I will plan to take with his kids. It's frustrating sometimes for them to learn they are not the greatest or that even though it feels that way, there are things to learn still but it keeps…

Here's a personal experience, an extreme example and not typical, but yes, this happened:

Well... this is basically what I wanted to say except better. Take a star.

Part of the reason I love martial arts is that outside of sparring/fighting, it's only about me. If I suck, I only suck for myself.

I think there is a utility in recognizing those that are better than you if not only so you learn that somewhere, someday there will always be someone better. However, that doesn't mean everyone else was BAD. In the real world, someone may be the "best" at something but we learn over time that this doesn't mean they…

Essentially, yes. Everyone is expected to win, everyone is pushed to win, and then no one ends up winning.

But why should we encourage kids to give up on something they're not good at, especially if they enjoy it? Not everyone is going to have the talent or skills to be at the top. Does that mean that those on the bottom should just drop out?

I'm pretty "meh" on the whole thing.

This is such a good point. My sister and I are polar opposites. I was the booksmart-competition-motivated-pushing-makes-me-work-better-kid. She was the creative type who wilted in competition and had unusual skills due to learning disabilities. She went on to go to NFL nationals and was a finalist multiple times. …

Shit son, you had baseball equipment? We caught those dang balls in our bare hands because we were too poor to afford gloves. That chapped somethin' fierce I tell ya, but it toughened up the palms for long days canning preserves.

I agree. This was a big reason why I never did any kind of sports as a kid because I knew I would be horrible at them. I suck at sports, but it doesn't mean I still don't like to play.

I feel like the "every damn kid gets a trophy" thing is kind of a myth. It's like a recreational pastime for old people to complain about these things, just like it seems to give them some pleasure to bitch about millennials. As a child of 90s and teen of the 00s there really wasn't much trophy throwing going on.…

We don't have to give everyone a trophy for everything, but we could, y'know... not be a bag of buttholes to them.

And we worked so goddamn hard in an eight-hour shift for two dollars, which back in those days, could get you a movie ticket, a cherry phosphate from the soda jerk, and a can of Prince Albert!

Damn right these kids shouldn't get anything for losing. Back in my day we had to EARN our awards. This was after walking barefoot to the games. 10 miles, with baseball equipment for the team. These kids today ar-*falls asleep*

Why do things for kids in America need to be fucking competitions? Why can't team play and cooperation be rewarded? You show up, are a good sport, try, but don't win so that's not good enough to recognize? America's only for winners?

Mark you are really expecting me to believe you didn't bake this cake in order to continue as the strange sex story God of Jez??