My in laws are very into their sports, particularly running. They love the competition of sport. Fair enough. However, when we were at their house the other day, my mil said that she wanted to take my son (who's 3) to a junior park run. I laughingly said, no doubt he'd run round the opposite way to everyone else. And this is what he would likely do. He's usually on his own agenda with his play and his concentration is very limited - he is only 3.
So my mil very seriously said, 'no he wouldn't do that. He'd love it and he'd love it being competitive.'
As soon as she said that, I thought no, I wouldn't encourage my son whilst he's still so young to be competitive in sport. I personally feel that's something that for maybe 6/7 years old and up. Not under.
I feel like my mil is putting her own interest and motivation onto ds. She did it with her two children too. She loved horse riding so they had to do it too and go in for riding competitions. I know my in laws love their running and are really into personal bests and putting their successes on social media, etc but I just want my ds to have a certain amount of choice in what he does. I'm not competitive at all and DH isn't really either so maybe it's not something I understand but I don't particularly like the nature of ultra competitive people either.
Thoughts please?