Happy New Year to all our readers!
We will begin this year by discussing the importance of laying the right foundations, a particularly tough challenge for parents of young athletes. Our themes for this month will be early financial literacy, gratitude, social responsibility and peer pressure. Our formative years are of the utmost importance since that is when we are equipped with the tools and knowledge to go out in the world. Children are like blank slates and the younger they are taught something the better they will understand it as they grow, which is why is important to educate your child financially at a young age.
Gratitude and social responsibility are both qualities that everyone, athletes and not, should learn. The former is the state of being thankful for what you have while being able to separate it from complacency. The latter teaches us an aspect of belonging to a community; it teaches us that we have a duty to give back to our community and the less fortunate. These are qualities that create responsible and socially conscious adults. Finally, peer pressure is a phenomenon that occurs every day throughout our lives and it can be either positive or negative. Teenagers are particularly vulnerable as they strive for acceptance and recognition from their peers. The parent’s task is to help them navigate it and mitigate its effects. Stay tuned while we explore all these in the Money Smart Athlete Blog. May 2022 be the year that we rid ourselves of this pandemic and instead focus on our goals, dreams and aspirations.
Athena P. Constantinou
E-mail: [email protected]
