Playing with friends vs. playing with parents.

Let’s face it if you want your kids to be enthusiastic disc golfers they will need to play with and against their peers.

 

This discussion is to suggest ideas of not only how to get your child playing disc golf, but how to get them involved with other disc golfers their own age.

 

Here are my suggestions:

• Encourage your child to bring a friend or two whenever you take them disc golfing.
• Allow your child to use your practice basket with their friends without constant supervision.  This will reduce the life of your practice basket dramatically!
• Contact local Disc Golf clubs and/or recreation departments about youth disc golf programs.  If they don’t have one volunteer to help organize something.
• Get them playing with other members of your extended family, especially any members just a few years older then your child.

 

Let’s hear your suggestions, concerns, and especially your stories of getting your children involved in disc golfing

[Adam Sinkus]

my constant struggle is this... i take my son and daughter (5 and 8) out after school, work or whatever in the afternoon ant there are kids swearing and smoking weed and such. I don't care so much if they do that stuff i just don't want them doing around my children.

[Mike McFarlin]

Swearing and bad shots seem to go together. I never worried about swearing when my kids were growing up. I took Lenny Bruce's advice about swearing: "Their only words”, ignore them or laugh at them and it diminishes their affect. Besides, shocking grandma at the dinner table with the f-bomb seems to be a rite of passage for 8 or 9 year olds. At least it was in my family. Grandma got over it and the child got the lecture about inappropriate use of language.

However, smoking weed should be kept discrete. You can either point out to the smokers that if what they are doing is obvious to you it’s probably obvious to less cool individuals, or let the DGC governing body know there is a problem. It’s your choice as to what you do, but whatever you do, do it when your children are not around and you can be level headed.

[Sam Smith]

My son is only 2, however I try to make it a point to take some of my friends children out to the course every now and then. I agree that they need to play against other kids their own age, and I have been planning to group up with the local community center to start an EDGE program. I truly believe that getting the youth involved is the best way to help the sport grow. I know that I would have loved to know about disc golf when I was a kid.

[Mike McFarlin]

Here are pictures of my 9 year old nephew playing on Christmas day 2010 with his grown up cousins.