Get Ready For The Children Of Millennials!

As our society struggles to cope with the advent of millennials and their impact on everything we do, we discover quickly that they are a gifted generation but one that comes with many weaknesses and pitfalls.  Someone has well said that you discover the most about a person's character when they are under stress--and if that is the case, then a whole bunch of them got failing grades this past week...

After losing the Presidential election, the young democrat millennials were quick to shed tears in their moment of disbelief.  I had the privilege this past week of standing beside four millennials who were on the street hugging and crying and saying, "I can't believe she lost..."  Of course I was quick to rush over to console them and promise that "Jesus still loves you."

Even the men weren't exempt from the "pain and suffering" that they were forced to endure.  Its not very comforting to have a man say that we "weren't sensitive to his needs during his time of loss" when he's whining about losing an election.

And then there were those who were totally out of control...  They haven't quite mastered the understanding that in an election someone always wins and someone always loses.  That's how democracy works...

Suffice it to say that the vast majority of millennials are fine young people and personally I feel that our future is fairly secure in their hands--but then there is that small percentage that ruins everything for everyone.  Their seeming inability to deal with defeat or situations in which they don't "win" or get their way is a cause for much concern--and not so much for the present, but JUST IMAGINE what kind of kids they are going to raise!

And we as officials will have to deal with their children when they start playing tennis...  Here are some thoughts about the future of junior tennis and what the future holds for all of us...

You'd better get ready for lots of temper tantrums and parents who don't know what to do about it.  There won't be enough room at the tennis centers for "time out areas" for the little darlings...

And if tantrums don't work, they can always resort to tears.  It works on their parents every time.

What should we as officials do in preparation for the coming onslaught?

*  Study the personality traits of millennials and their children and know them well.
*  Study the rules of tennis and know them well because the parents will have their phones nearby to show the rule about everything.
*  Be prepared to be a star because they will all have their phones and will be videoing everything you say and do.
*  Carry a spare puppy or kitten along with you so you can assign them to an unhappy child of a millennial and it will help them through their stressful time of playing tennis.
*  Keep a good supply of coloring books so they can express their emotions in a tangible manner.
*  Be sure we change the rules of tennis to allow them to communicate between every point with their parents and coaches on their cell phones.
*  Allow for at least 4 minutes on changeovers so they don't get overheated or stressed during a match.
*  Above all else, don't let someone be declared "winner" and someone declared "loser" because that would upset both their sensitive psyches.

Someone once made this wise statement:  The way that a child responds to his parents' authority will soon become the way that he responds to God's authority."

Since that is true, you'd better hang on because I don't know exactly where we as officials fit into the grand scheme of things but I can see many storm clouds on the tennis horizon...