As an invested and self-sacrificing sports parent, you place the priorities of your busy athlete(s) too often above your own well-being. Your health can take a huge hit, and in some cases, your involvement in youth sports might even increase your risks for cancer.
Health is compromised with cortisol and alcohol. If you’ve been around youth sports long enough, you know both seem to be in ample supply. You, dear sport parent, deserve to prioritize your own health by intentionally balancing your stress level and controlling your alcohol intake…no matter what may be happening on the field, court, or rink.
Cortisol, Alcohol & Course Correction
Cortisol is the “stress” hormone responsible for our survival, but it doesn’t serve us well when it hangs around all the time. Cortisol is supposed to ebb and flow each day. In healthy individuals, it should be at its highest level in the morning and then drop off by the end of the day. Chronic stress that keeps the level too high through the entire day is bad for the human system. Like, really bad.
Parenting kids through the youth sports gauntlet can be cortisol-inducing. Different youth sports things stress out people differently, but common stressors include feeling trapped by the schedules, dealing with unmet expectations, feeling the pressures of financial strain, performance disappointment, and fear of and navigating through injuries, to name a few. If thoughts of these stressors constantly hum under the surface, cortisol likely lives there too.
A recent article published in Harvard Health argues that prolonged stress may even increase the risk of death from cancer.
Alcohol travels with most adults who enjoy youth sports through “playcations” or travel tournaments. As the athletes get older, the imbibing adults seem to increase. It might sound like a de-stressor to throw back a few cold ones, but pouring alcohol into a cortisol-saturated body is recipe for health disaster.
I talk more about this in my upcoming book For the Team: How to Improve the Youth Sports Experience for Everyone, but since writing a chapter devoted entirely to alcohol, more information has surfaced about the cancer risk for alcohol drinkers. The U.S. Surgeon General is Now Calling for Cancer Warnings on Alcohol – The New York Times
NO ONE CAN COURSE CORRECT BUT YOU
It is possible to navigate the cortisol and alcohol minefield that persists in the youth sports environment, but it takes intentional effort. Here are a few ideas to lower levels of cortisol and find courage to choose new ways to engage healthfully.
- Start a yoga practice- Science supports its effect on cortisol rhythms.
- Eat a balanced diet- The same things you encourage your budding athletes to eat.
- Limit caffeine- Put an end to the constant drip of caffeine through the day.
- Get enough sleep- Follow your own advice and take phones out of your room.
- Exercise regularly- Use your kids’ practice time for your own workout.
- Stay hydrated- With water.
- Adopt mocktails and NA options- No need to end the parent social hour, just change the recipe.
- Take a break now and then- As you feel yourself getting overwhelmed, remember that you have a life worth nourishing. What are your hobbies? Who are your people? Have you spent enough time outside the confines of your child’s youth sports commitment? Make a date with yourself!!
Balancing the demands of parenting an athlete with strategies that prioritize your physical, emotional and mental health is not just good for you. It will strengthen you in ways your young athletes need. The gift you give them in valuing your own health will make the entire experience better for everyone.
Meagan Frank 
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