James Harrison does not support the growing trend of being nice to children. His sons, born in 2007 and 2009, came home with a pair of Student-Athlete Award trophies for being "Best of the Batch" and Harrison announced to the world that these trophies are bullshit and not welcome in the Harrison household. "While I'm very proud of my boys for everything they do and will encourage them till the day I die, these trophies will be given back until they EARN a real trophy."I don't know if they earned these trophies "for nothing," it clearly says they are the "best of the batch," but it's obvious that Harrison is a "win or don't bring it home" kind of guy. Which is fine. Your parenting choices are your parenting choices, but when you take to the soap box and say you're taking a stand because kids should "…not cry and whine until somebody gives you something to shut you up," people are going to ask questions.Such as: Are you of the opinion that it is Next Level Athletics' responsibility to raise children and teach them the importance of perseverance? Do you value your own parenting lessons so little that the presence of a worthless trophy can undo your efforts to raise your boys the way you want?It's quite a leap to think a kid is going to start feeling himself and walk around thinking he's the greatest just because he got a trophy. While participation trophies might be silly, they also seem pretty harmless. Requiring kids to "earn" praise for doing well—it's not like these trophies said Champions of Being Present at Camp" or something—comes off as a bit of posturing, but you do you, James Harrison. Being proud of your "boys for everything they do" is the parenting equivalent of (and worth much more than) a participation trophy, anyway.[Instagram]
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