Max, your grandson knows what is valuable.

I notice that he does not proudly display his Participation Trophies on the mantle, as one does championship trophies, but keeps them in a bag.

Very well put, I agree. My nine-year-old grandson has a whole bag full of Participation trophies, He says he’d rather have an ice cream cone.

If they are that worried about running up the score, they should impose some type of handicap on the winning team, such as putting in the second string/JV until the score gets closer, or if they want to get drastic, limit the number of players on the field. What they should never do is tell someone playing not to try hard.

I grew up playing sandlot baseball, football, soccer, hockey, etc. The greatest thing is that we did it all ourselves. A game ends up too one-sided? Just switch players for the next game to make it more competitive. There aren’t enough players to cover the baseball field? Easy, everything to the left of second base is a foul ball. We made all kinds of allowances for unbalanced teams, inadequate fields and equipment, etc., but the one thing we never did was tell anyone not to try as hard as they can.

We adults have gotten way too involved in children’s sports. There’s nothing wrong with having organized sports, but kids should have opportunities to organize their own teams, their own rules, etc., through which they learn responsibility and creativity.