The first time I ever wore a pair of ballet shoes was at the tender age of  two-and-a-half, and not because I wanted to be the next Anna Pavlova. My mother enrolled me in dance classes as a way to encourage socialization and coordination skills. In fact, she was a little nervous I'd turn in to a tomboy because at the time, I was obsessed with my neighbor's racecars and G.I. Joes. Flash forward to 2006, and I've made a nice name for myself in New York as an actor/dancer/singer, thanks to the years of dance classes that put me on the road to performing.  

My parents never forced me to take class and they never disrupted my life to pursue grander visions. I had plenty of friends who's parents took out loans to send their pubescent children to New York in an attempt to seek fame and fortune at fourteen. I can't say too many succeeded. The difference between my parents and many of the parents you see in shows like "Sports Kids Moms and Dads," or other reality shows that highlight the overbearing activities of pushy parents, is the way in which parents take a role as either a supporter or as a dominator in their kid's lives.

It's sad to say, but people are so rarely shocked by the outlandish behavior of pushy parents. Perhaps the most recent and extreme case of this behavior was in France where a father was on trial for killing his son's tennis opponent. Christophe Fauviau, 46, was the father of two rising tennis stars. This week he was sentenced to eight years in prison for the death of a tennis player who died as the result of ingesting a sports drink that Fauviau spiked with a tranquilizer. He admitted that he had tampered with the drinks of 27 other tennis players, just before tournaments or games against his own two children.

Although this behavior is extreme, competitive and overbearing behavior by parents are quickly becoming major concerns in youth sports and other activities. Parents see players like Tiger Woods or the Williams Sisters and begin to dream about their own children turning in to the next sports prodigies. Although this behavior is not specific to sports, often times it is the sports parents who find themselves on the lens of a microscope, constantly being evaluated for their intentions and promotions.

Earl Woods was one of these parents. Most of us know the story of his exceptional son, Tiger, and the accolades he garnered as a youth, collegiate player, and ultimately as a professional. The elder Woods even went on to write a best-selling book entitled "Training a Tiger: A Father's Guide to Raising a Winner in Both Golf and Life." At first glance, this might look like a training manual for overzealous parents everywhere, but ultimately, this is not what the book teaches.

What Earl Woods did for his son was condition and develop a love for golf, much the same way my parents introduced me to dance and fostered my own development in the activity. Whenever Earl would practice his swing, or playing the game, he made sure Tiger was within view and could watch. When Tiger was old enough to walk, Earl presented Tiger with a golf club, just as my parents put ballet slippers on my own feet. Earl encouraged his son to play golf, and supported his son at tournaments, but most importantly, he made sure his son loved the game. The biggest problem with pushy parents are that they either force their children to play, or they shove their own unrealized dreams on their kids. When Earl Woods learned to play golf, it was while he was a Green Beret in Vietnam. He never "dreamed" of playing on the PGA tour himself. Earl learned to love the game so much, he wanted to pass that on to his son. The fundamentals that Earl used to develop a love of the game in his son can be applied to any sport or activity, and that's what his book illustrates. At a young age, children's minds are the most impressionable, hence why language is easier to learn as a child versus as an adult. If you can develop the right attitude and mentality at the proper age, then producing a child prodigy is that much more realistic.

What is unrealistic is when a parent begins to skew the lines between encouragement and emotional abuse. The National Youth Sports Safety Foundation calls emotional abuse "the action that occurs when an individual treats a child in a negative manner which impairs the child's concept of self." Emotional abuse can include any of the following: forcing a child to participate in sports, not speaking to a child after he or she performs poorly, hitting/yelling/punishing a child for poor performance, and criticizing a child for poor performance.

A perfect example of emotional abuse comes by way of Mark Downs, Jr., a little-league coach who currently faces charges of felony assault and the corruption of minors when he paid two of his 7-year old players $25 a piece to injure an autistic teammate whom Downs thought was "dragging the team down." Downs got his wish when one player threw a ball at the young boy's head, and when the autistic child did not succumb to his injury, another player threw a ball at his groin.

It's hard to imagine that any adult would condone such behavior, nevertheless encourage such antics. Unfortunately, not all of us were born with a conscious or sense of morality. Some adults and parents are blinded by their own ambition, so much so that they cannot distinguish between the dreams of their children or their own unrealized fantasies.

In the show "Sports Kids Moms and Dads," the father of an 8 year-old football player introduces himself saying "I believe that we choose our parents. And I believe that <my son> chose me because he wanted to be a football player." That is the man's justification for putting his young son through a seven day conditioning program that is on par with most high school or college level practices. You could give the guy some credit, he hardly denies he is living his dreams through his son: "The major dream in my life that's unfulfilled in not playing in the NFL. I'm hoping that the dream that I didn't fulfill will come to life with <my son.>"