Denna uppsats lägger sitt fokus på de som oftast står idrottaren närmast, föräldrarna. Att vara idrottsförälder idag är inte bara tidskrävande och kräver en hel del ekonomiska resurser, det finns även en press på dagens föräldrar att passa in, att följa normen och att välja rätt vägar för sitt barn. Syftet med denna studie är att utforska idrottsföräldrars upplevelser och erfarenheter om engagemang och involvering i barn- och ungdomsidrott och viktiga frågeställningar var bland annat om det kan bli för mycket av det goda engagemanget och om detta i sin tur sätter press på barnet. En kvalitativ metod i form av fokusgruppsintervjuer användes. Denna uppsats tar stöd i Cotés teoretiska modell om hur man går från deliberate play till deliberate practice, för att bibehålla motivationen till ett livslångt idrottande. Genom att barnet får prova på flera idrotter, ökar sannolikheten att intresset för idrott finns kvar även i framtiden och barnet får även tillhöra den gemenskap som inte enbart ökar den sociala kompetensen hos barnet, men även håller barnet borta från skärmtid och andra oönskade aktiviteter.Studien visar att föräldrar värderar barnens idrottande högt. Idrottandet och medlemskapet i en förening ses som en investering i barnets mående, såväl psykiskt som fysiskt, men idrottsföreningarna fungerar även som en socialisationsmiljö. Det stora engagemang i form av tid och de pengar som föräldrarna lägger på barnens idrottsintresse, upplever föräldrarna att de får valuta för i barnens glädje. Idrottandet har blivit en norm och för studiens föräldrar var det otänkbart att deras barn skulle sluta med all idrott. Föräldrarna vill inte känna att de pressar sina barn och upplever det som en fin linje mellan att vara stöttande och pressande. Föräldrar upplever det svårt att veta var gränsen går då det finns så mycket att välja mellan i och med den kommersialiserade idrotten. Även barnen kan uppleva att de inte kan sluta med sin idrott för att föräldrarna varit så engagerade och barnen vill inte göra dem besvikna. / This essay focuses on those who are most often closest to the athlete, the parents. Being a sports parent today is not only time consuming and requires a lot of financial resources, there is also a pressure on today's parents to fit in, to follow the norm and to choose the right paths for their child. The purpose of this study is to explore sports parents' experiences and experiences of commitment and involvement in children's and youth sports and important questions were, among other things, whether there can be too much of the good commitment and whether this in turn puts pressure on the child. A qualitative method in the form of focus group interviews was used. This essay is supported by Coté's theoretical model of how to go from deliberate play to deliberate practice, in order to maintain the motivation for lifelong sports. By allowing the child to try different sports, the probability increases that the interest in sports remains in the future and the child also belongs to the community that not only increases the child's social skills, but also keeps the child away from screen time and other unwanted activities.The study shows that parents value their children's sports highly. Sports and membership in an association are seen as an investment in the child's state, both mentally and physically, but the sports associations also function as a socialization environment. The great commitment in the form of time and the money that the parents spend on the children's interest in sports, the parents feel that they get value for in the children's joy. Sports have become a norm and for the parents of the study, it was unthinkable that their children would stop all sports. Parents do not want to feel that they are pressuring their children and experience it as a fine line between being supportive and pressing. Parents find it difficult to know where the line goes as there is so much to choose from with commercialized sports. Even the children may feel that they cannot quit their sport because the parents have been so involved and the children do not want to disappoint them.

The sporting triangle represents the relationships among children, leaders and parents in the context of child sport. These relations are of significant importance for the child’s experience of sport. Taking the sporting triangle as its point of departure this thesis aims to describe and understand the socialisation processes among children, leaders and parents in girls’ and boys’ football teams, focusing on how the children's perspective is reflected in practice. The study has an ethnographic research approach and is based on field work carried out over two years in one girls’ and one boys’ football team in an ordinary Swedish sports club. Data were generated through 60 participant observations of the daily life of football, and through interviews with 38 children, 7 leaders and 8 parents. It was found that children, leaders and parents have different views concerning what is most valuable in children’s football, which both affects their behaviour and what they expect of each other. One overall conclusion is that children, leaders and parents are in what is referred to as different sports worlds. The sports worlds of the three groups involved in child football are thus based on different logics and this has implications for the social interactions in the teams. The world of children is based in a social logic, particularly in the value of friends. The world of leaders is based in a sporting logic, more specifically in the value of building a high-performance football player. The world of parents is based in an upbringing logic, particularly in the value of what is good for their own child. The social relationships between the children also show how boys and girls relate to a male standard that exists in children's football. The results are discussed in relation to the significance of generation and gender in child football and to the demand that adults take children's specific needs and desires into account more seriously in sport. The thesis also discusses what might constitute a child perspective and how child football can be adjusted to meet the needs and desires of children. In adopting the child’s perspective there is much to be gained from seeing girls and boys as the social actors they are, instead of seeing them as the next generation of adult football players. The thesis also offers a more developed model of the sporting triangle which highlights the importance of interactions between, as well as among, the groups of girls, boys, leaders and parents, as a starting point for further research within the field of child and youth sport.