Overly pushy parents risk damaging kids' health

According to a study, parents who go overboard in their roles as supporter and motivators can actually end up damaging their children's health.

Pushy parents risk damaging their children's health if their love is conditional on achieving success, it has been claimed.

HT Image

Rod Jaques of the English Institute of Sport said that in some case a parent's love could appear ''conditional'' on the child achieving sporting success.

This can lead, he claimed, to youngsters developing eating disorders or inventing injuries.

"I think it is a tough one when a parent comes into the consultation who is both the coach and parent. It is a potential for conflict of interest there," the Daily Mail quoted Jaques as saying during the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC).

"It's a very delicate balance between encouragement and support for that child, and its potential for being a mentor or a tormentor of the child I think is really quite real.

"Australians have gone a bit further and called this the ugly parent syndrome and we probably have witnessed this on the side of our rugby fields or football fields of the bawling parent, not just at the referee but at the child on the field of play.

''This love for their child should not be conditional on results and unfortunately it sometimes is," he said.