Embrace March Madness

8 Reasons Why Your Kid Will Benefit from March Madness

Ahh, it’s that time of year when I could literally spend an entire day in front of the TV watching the beauty of the NCAA tournament unfold.  The drama, the story lines, the evil empires (Duke), and the Cinderallas all there for the taking.  Don’t be stingy this year and lock yourself in your man cave to watch the games in isolation.  This year, I think you should do what I’ve been doing for the last several years…start a family bracket!

Every year around this time I start to get my kids hyped for the upcoming tournament.  Early March I’ll let them know to get ready to fill in their brackets.  They have become so used to it that they often start asking when they can fill them in by February.  Beyond the basic family bonding and lasting memories that will be achieved, here are some reasons why you should get your brackets set up TODAY!  It’s not too late (as of this writing)…

1. Encourage Family Rivalries – What we do every year is invite extended family to join in the battle to see who represents better overall.  We’ll pit our family members against other family members to see who knows their stuff.  This adds another layer of competitiveness and gets the kids’ juice flowing a little bit more.  If your last name happens to be Gambino, Gotti, or Corleone you may want to skip this technique.
2. Gain Career Building Skills – Every office talks about the brackets this time of year.  Half the workers are secretly monitoring the scores throughout the day.  Some are outright out at the pub watching the game.  Just think, you’ll be instilling life long career skills in your kids by having them get in on March Madness from a young age.  Having the ability to discuss the brackets, and who they picked in one of their 18 leagues, is networking gold.
3. Foster Inherent Gambling Skills – Your little one will start to understand ‘favorites’, ‘higher and lower seeds’, and the (occasional) joy of ‘upsets and spoilers’.  You could even implement a pot.  If little Johnny gets 3 of the 4 Final Four, he has no chores for the next week.  Whoever wins gets to have everyone else in the house wait on them hand and foot over the next week.  Or, go for the good ol’ standard and put some money in.  Nothing says ‘good parenting’ like taking $10 off your kid when they pick Alcorn State to win it all.
4. Increase Ability to Talk Trash – Inevitably your kid will end up talking trash to you as your number 1 seed you have winning it all goes down in flames in the opening round.  You’ll need to learn to appreciate this and respect the innate ability of your offspring to yap with the best of ’em.  Likewise, you get to throw a couple of verbal jabs at them when their spoiler pick to win it all is down by 45 at the half.  Just don’t go too far and have them running out of the room crying…not good.
5. Learn to Cope  – When junior’s final four teams all lose in the first round, and they have to spend the next couple of weeks as a spectator to the whole event, they quickly learn coping mechanisms.
6. Research Colleges – Where else can your kid get so much information and exposure to 64+ colleges, most of them you couldn’t find on a map?  When I was a kid, I wanted to go to Kentucky JUST because of basketball.
7. Learning to Function After Late Nights – The joy of living on the east coast allows us parents and kids to stay up til the wee hours of the night watching all the action.  What better way to get your kids used to adult life than having them stay up and watch all the late games then making them get up for a full day of school early the next morning.  Welcome to adulthood kids!
8. Improved Hand/Eye Coordination – Since there are so many games on so many channels, with overlapping starts, nothing improves your remote control skills and overall hand/eye coordination like watching the tournament on TV.  Add some of the apps and online tools to track your scores and brackets live and your little one will be asking for more coffee before you know it.  Just make sure they recognize who ultimately ‘owns’ that remote.  Dad…that’s just the rules.

There you have it.  8 quick reasons why you should go out and stand up a family bracket this year.  The kids will love it and the whole family will have fun over the next couple of weeks…or until all of your picks go south.  Do you have other benefits, techniques, or traditions related to March Madness?  Discuss it over on the Crazy Dad Life Facebook page.