America's softest generation isn't the kids — it's their parents

The biggest babies at a girls' flag football tournament in Revere, Massachusetts, weren't the girls.

They were the grown men running the game.

A coach and referee got into a fight in front of children who had come to play football, not watch two adults lose their tempers.

Both men later apologized, but what kind of example were they setting? We hear plenty about how soft kids have become.

They can't handle losing, expect trophies for showing up and need constant praise.

But as a psychotherapist, I wonder whether we've been blaming the wrong people.

Maybe the problem isn't that children can't handle disappointment.

Maybe it's that their parents can't stand watching them experience it.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE OUTKICK SPORTS COVERAGE Spend a Saturday at a youth sporting event and you'll see parents screaming at referees and treating a missed call like a personal insult.

A father tells his son to stop making excuses after striking out, then berates the umpire.

A mother tells her daughter to be a good sport, then complains that the coach didn't give her enough playing time.

These are often the same people complaining that America is raising a generation of wimps.

Yet the moment a referee makes a call they don't like, they behave like toddlers.

A parent who would punish his child for screaming at a teacher may have no problem screaming at a referee.