Thread by @kurteichenwald

1. Once more, heard someone insulting a millennials as "participation trophy" generation. So wrong.

So..a story. I coached my kids' sports teams. Early on, I told parents we would only give trophies for a successful season, cause otherwise it robbed their success of meaning...

2...and you would think I declared we should slap their children endlessly. Parents revolted. Some said, if I refused to get the participation trophies, THEY would get them and hand them out. The anger was universal. Except among the kids....

3...none of them gave a damn. None of them knew WHY they were getting trophies. It didn't rob victory of meaning (we had some great seasons), it robbed TROPHIES of meaning. The victory itself was the victory. Loss was loss. The kids were not stupid. They almost seemed to....

4...consider trophies as pieces of plastic they get at the end of the season as memorabilia, not as honoring victory.

So, I was right and wrong - participation trophies were stupid and MY generation should not have given them out. But kids were not deluded into thinking these..

5...had meaning. Again, victory was victory. Losses with trophies made trophies meaningless.

So, don't condemn the kids who received participation trophies but understood them as stupid. Condemn the parents - MY generation - who were so shallow they insisted on giving them out.

6...oh, and one part of the story I left out.

I caved to the parental anger. I gave out participation trophies. But each time I told them "This is something to remember the season by." Except when they won, then I bought larger trophies and said "WE WON!"