SAWFT…..Kelly from the Bad News Bears was drinking and smoking in Little League.
OT: Youth Travel Baseball
- Thread starter Sean Miller Fan
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And driving a van from LA to Houston.
Second one was on two days ago. Quite possibly in the running for worst sequel to a great original.
I remember it being bad but just unreal how truly painful it was.
the let them play chant in the astrodome was the only redeeming scene in that god forsaken sequel.
Wow, wrestling moms. Been to a few of these. It made me really uncomfortable to hear these moms yell out to their sons to, essentially to do harm to their 6 year old opponents. OK, not actual malicious harm....they use the proper wrestling terminology I guess but its still reallu uncomfortable to hear these moms yell these instructions out when their baby is wrestling another baby whose mom is sitting 2 rows over.
Also, regardless of the sport, its a pet peeve of mine to hear moms root on and cheer for kids other than their own. I know they feel like they are just being encouraging but its annoying. You are there for your kid. You are not a "fan" of this team.
Another thing:
The Travel Baseball Eligibility Year runs May 1-April 30, which makes sense since the travel baseball season is roughly April to Halloween. So if you are 10 between May 1 and April 30, you play 10U.....but only until like August or September when you have to start playing 11U? That makes no sense to me. I'm like who came up with these rules? The year runs May 1-April 30 so why would you "move up" during that year?
Soccer is the same way. Soccer uses birth year so the eligibility year runs Jan 1-Dec 31 but kids are basically "playing up" in the fall and then play the right age in the spring. Should be that they move up for the Spring Season and then play that same age group for the fall season and then move up on Jan 1.
The Travel Baseball Eligibility Year runs May 1-April 30, which makes sense since the travel baseball season is roughly April to Halloween. So if you are 10 between May 1 and April 30, you play 10U.....but only until like August or September when you have to start playing 11U? That makes no sense to me. I'm like who came up with these rules? The year runs May 1-April 30 so why would you "move up" during that year?
Soccer is the same way. Soccer uses birth year so the eligibility year runs Jan 1-Dec 31 but kids are basically "playing up" in the fall and then play the right age in the spring. Should be that they move up for the Spring Season and then play that same age group for the fall season and then move up on Jan 1.
I am in my 50's.....can I ask any of you guys say between 45-60 (or older)?
1) Did you play sports as a kid?
2) Did you play on a traveling league?
3) Did your parents attend every game/match/meet?
4) Did your parents attend every practice??
I am not getting this parental devotion of every aching free moment that they have to be with their kids. That didn't happen in my generation. Sometimes the parents would show up to games, when you got into High School and the games counted more, maybe. Practices? Rarely and it was usually that pain in the ass dad who was completely overbearing and thought his son was the next Pete Rose or Dan Marino.
I don't think this is particularly healthy. Kids and parents need some sort of separation. And here's a clue mommy and daddy, while your kid is special to you, he may not be special in his sport. So let him be. He doesn't need you there. Well now, maybe he does because we have created this overwhelming expectations that the parents lives are all and only about their children and nothing else. We inflate these kids, spoil them to no end, and then when faced in the real world, they have no sense when something doesn't go there way or there is nobody to tell them "they are the best" after they fail at something.
We have created a nation of basically.....sawfties.............selfish kids, overwrought parents. My god, working the work week is hard enough then having to pile in a car and drive to Indianapolis for the weekend to play a couple of softball games. It is also ironic, America's First Sport (aka Football) has some camps, but don't have these manufactured teams (well I guess 7on7's) but not like these other sports who likely won't give out scholarships. I understand some like hockey a bit, because you have to find like opponents, AAU basketball and baseball maybe, but these ordinary neighbor kids, or worse these "Cheer" teams and stuff.....man, have your kids enjoy summer, spend money on a pool membership (or put one in yourself) and have a nice 10 day vacation on a beach. You and your kids will enjoy it much more and it will be much more rewarding. Little Johnny can play 3rd base for the local VFW sponsored Little League team, ride his bike to and from practice and games. You will be richer for it, he will be happier in the end. If he bats like .600 with a few HR's, or throws a few no hitters, trust me a traveling team will find him.
We are just creating such unrealistic expectations for these kids, no wonder the drop off in participation between 13 and 16 years old is so precipitous. And here's the biggest memo to parents......DON'T DO THIS FOR YOUR EGO. Here endeth the message.
1) Did you play sports as a kid?
2) Did you play on a traveling league?
3) Did your parents attend every game/match/meet?
4) Did your parents attend every practice??
I am not getting this parental devotion of every aching free moment that they have to be with their kids. That didn't happen in my generation. Sometimes the parents would show up to games, when you got into High School and the games counted more, maybe. Practices? Rarely and it was usually that pain in the ass dad who was completely overbearing and thought his son was the next Pete Rose or Dan Marino.
I don't think this is particularly healthy. Kids and parents need some sort of separation. And here's a clue mommy and daddy, while your kid is special to you, he may not be special in his sport. So let him be. He doesn't need you there. Well now, maybe he does because we have created this overwhelming expectations that the parents lives are all and only about their children and nothing else. We inflate these kids, spoil them to no end, and then when faced in the real world, they have no sense when something doesn't go there way or there is nobody to tell them "they are the best" after they fail at something.
We have created a nation of basically.....sawfties.............selfish kids, overwrought parents. My god, working the work week is hard enough then having to pile in a car and drive to Indianapolis for the weekend to play a couple of softball games. It is also ironic, America's First Sport (aka Football) has some camps, but don't have these manufactured teams (well I guess 7on7's) but not like these other sports who likely won't give out scholarships. I understand some like hockey a bit, because you have to find like opponents, AAU basketball and baseball maybe, but these ordinary neighbor kids, or worse these "Cheer" teams and stuff.....man, have your kids enjoy summer, spend money on a pool membership (or put one in yourself) and have a nice 10 day vacation on a beach. You and your kids will enjoy it much more and it will be much more rewarding. Little Johnny can play 3rd base for the local VFW sponsored Little League team, ride his bike to and from practice and games. You will be richer for it, he will be happier in the end. If he bats like .600 with a few HR's, or throws a few no hitters, trust me a traveling team will find him.
We are just creating such unrealistic expectations for these kids, no wonder the drop off in participation between 13 and 16 years old is so precipitous. And here's the biggest memo to parents......DON'T DO THIS FOR YOUR EGO. Here endeth the message.
it bothers you that parents root for the team there kids are on? so when my kids' team scores a run in baseball, i cant cheer. Damn man, you are a strange bird SMF>
my dad went to most of my games. no on practices. im the same way, usually not siting thru baseball practices, i'd rather chew on cotton balls than sit thru a soccer practice..
i think in this age, the push for good sportsmanship is over the top.. we cant yell discouraging things at the other team or the refs/umps? BS.. youth refs/umps arent above criticism, i dont care if they are still in 9th grade either.. they are getting paid 20 bucks, make the right call or you are hearing it from me.
I wanted to play little league baseball in 4th grade and wasn’t allowed because my parents didn’t want to drive me to practice. I was allowed to play football the next fall because my next door neighbor played too, and my parents didn’t have to take to every practice.
We moved that fall to a town where we lived right beside the school, and I was allowed to play every sport I wanted to.
My parents almost never went to my games. It didn’t bother me one bit.
No, ok to cheer. But to say, "way to go Bobby" and its not your son or "that's ok, Bobby, get em next time" and its not your son, that's just a pet peeve
1) Yes
2) I played on a local all-star team and then American Legion baseball which was prestigious at the time and the travel teams were just start ups. There were some really good players in our league and rivalries that made it fun. Our traveling basketball team as a kid consisted of traveling to local tournaments like the New Ken YMCA. We didn’t have a youth football team in my area and my parents worked, so traveling 5-10 miles was never really considered. We just played tackle football in our backyard.
3/4) No - My dad worked and rarely attended any games and definitely not a practice. My mom attended some games, but no practices.
One of the big surprises to me is how every parent attends every game and most practices. When I was a kid, I don't think a parent ever came to practice and maybe only 50% of them came to games. I notice that even the "bad parents" attend every game. Back in the day, they would have been the kid whose parents never showed up
F’in weird to me as well. I decided to coach one year because I was like if I am going to show up to this, then I might as well do something. The other years I just told my wife to take him to practice. I sure as heck don’t want to talk to a bunch of hipsters the whole time and act like I’m interested.
guys, i hate the over protective helicopter parent more than anyone but with these parents at every game and every practice rant, lets keep something in mind. a lot of times the parents are at these one hour or 90 minute practices cause they have to give their kid a ride home..
i've been to some of these soccer practices when my kids were 7-8 and they are like 45 minutes long. i could drop them off, drive home, get out of car and 15 seconds later, have to get up, grab keys and drive back and get them. Or i could stay. Not to hover over my kids and watch them kick a ball around a cone but because i know i'll be back in a half hour later anyways so just chill, grab my phone and read pantherlair on my phone..
i think if i was within walking distance of the field/park, me and i bet alot of parents would agree, they'd tell their kids to start walking and we'll see you later, im staying home.. but that's just not the case..
i've been to some of these soccer practices when my kids were 7-8 and they are like 45 minutes long. i could drop them off, drive home, get out of car and 15 seconds later, have to get up, grab keys and drive back and get them. Or i could stay. Not to hover over my kids and watch them kick a ball around a cone but because i know i'll be back in a half hour later anyways so just chill, grab my phone and read pantherlair on my phone..
i think if i was within walking distance of the field/park, me and i bet alot of parents would agree, they'd tell their kids to start walking and we'll see you later, im staying home.. but that's just not the case..
what surprises me is the commitment and time spent (wasted) on these travel teams. soccer, baseball (i'll leave hockey out of it for now since that's a whole other world), lacrosse travel and these parents are literally getting hotel rooms and spending whole weekends away from home on these. that's crazy to me.. i dont care if you think your 10 year old is Pele Jr, im not consistently driving out of state and getting hotels for a few youth games, it's just not happening.
my sis in law did this with my niece with girls lacrosse. they live outside of baltimore and many weekend trips to Norfolk, richmond areas for these weekend events and a few trips to orlando for the same thing.. my niece was like in jr high. F that noise..
Couldn't agree more. I did All Star baseball but that never required a hotel stay. With that said we were one game away (damn you Ingomar) from having to as part of the LLWS. With my little guy, he plays multiple sports , all rec league when he was younger and now for the Middle School except baseball is still rec. He is not a star, but he gets his time and he was still a kid that whole time who still saw grandparents, went on vacation, rode a bike, climbed trees, too many video games, etc. I did not force him to specialize in anything and I feel he is happier because of it. In HS if he wants to specialize in a sport, so be it, but for now, enjoy it all still. I'm realistic he isn't getting a scholarship or going pro.
Back in the day though, 1 parent would bring half the team. Carpooling. That was a thing. No one does that.
We used to all climb in the back up of our coach’s pickup truck after a game in the bed and get ice cream.
Haven’t seen a little kid in a bed of a truck in years. That was fun. Hell, we went out to starlake for concerts sitting on 7 cases of beer in the back of a pickup truck in high school.
We were transported in a big wood panel station wagon with the unlucky kids stuck all the way in the back bouncing around. Game day pitcher got the best seat.
Yes. I even did different ones. Summers were local swim team - I totally sucked, like really sucked, but it was fun then wiffleball, skateboarding, street hockey, etc. Fall was soccer or cross country, winter was wrestling and spring was baseball until I wasn’t good enough. Ended up playing a year of tennis, a year of distance running and a year of pole vaulting. made some games. Unless my dad was coaching baseball, parents were never at a practice. Now, I did watch a tape of a wrestling match. And yes, my mom was ‘that mom’. During live action I had her voice 100% blocked out. Like I didn’t know she said a word. I could hear my coaches, my teammates and a friend’s dad who knew what was up. On tape, OMG, she never stopped yelling. God bless her soul, she was a white tiger mom if there ever was one.
I am really lucky. My younger picked ballet. It is 11 minutes from my house. Parents are banned. Pre-COVID, I would drop her off, go upstairs and get an amazing anoint of uninterrupted work done. They also do NO coddling. Brutal honesty.
After several disastrous team sports experiences, my older one found boxing. Not wanting to leave a 9 year old girl alone in a gym populated with pro boxers, I tagged along and got workouts in. Now, it is really cool. We go together
and usually do our own things, but will work each other’s corner for sparring. That, or she beats me up. Either way, we leave happy.
1. Yes
2. No. But boxing was a lot of travel to go to the fights. Usually not local.
3. Yes. My dad did for HS sports. He went to even the JV games. He also went to every one of my sister's gymnastics meets, home and away. He didn't travel for boxing. He prefered that I didn't do that.
4. Some practices. I think mostly related to the drive as mentioned earlier.
I used to go to Adam's ice hockey practices. That was again related to the drive. Once he got his driver's license that ended. I go to every game that I can. Which hasn't changed as I went to every Thunder home game well before he ever made the team.
i played football, hoops and baseball growing up like most other kids and now that i think of it, i dont remember ANY Parents at any of the practices, in any sports. Hoops, the gym was small and no parents. football, same, parents dropped you off and when practice was over, you walked to the lot and they were there.
Baseball is different cause there are like 4 practices before games start so once games start, really no practices but again, no parents.
SMF might have a point, when the hell did parents start attending these things.
If you don't like it don't let your kid participate. Stop being a "KAREN".
Keeping on topic - What are your thoughts on taking your child to the bus stop and waiting until they get on the bus? I get walking your child when they are in 1st grade, but I find it weird when your child is in 6th grade and you still walk them to the stop. Especially when the bus stop is 50 yards away, the child has been walking to the same spot for 6 years, and there are 6-8 parents already there.
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im guilty of that and it pisses me off. bus stop is a driver and a wedge from my house, i live on a cul de sac too. couldnt be a flatter or safer walk to the stop. they were good to for a year then i started walking them down in the mornings with this covid / hybrid schedule crap and just kept doing it.. In my defense, they walk home, im not picking them up after school.
but yes, it's dumb and i shouldnt do it but i do and now when i dont (in the mornings), they act like they have to walk a mile in a snowstorm.. what's crazy is, they say how far it is but once they are home and playing with their friends, they are running past it anyways.
I stopped walking my son in the 4th grade. Now that I work from home, if it is really storming, I am talking really bad, I will drive him and let him stay in the car. I guess I am a softy because my parents never did that for me once I was past I think 5th grade.
I had a kid on my team, I hate to say it but you just knew he was going to have it tough. You could see it. I even told the mom I can pick him up and take him to games because I kinda figured she would have a hard time getting him there. But, man, she was there at like every game, every practice. Now, I've heard the kid has real problems at home but just this woman getting her son and going to all his games makes her like better than all of our parents.
These parents today arent missing their kid's sporting event for ANYTHING. Its cool but also kinda weird. That said, I never miss either
yeah, i thoroughly enjoy the heck out of my daughter's softball games and little man's baseball games. flat out love going to them. soccer games too, nice hour of enjoyment. so i really do look forward to going to them, probably more than they like playing them..
I'm 32 and I'm also in the camp of parents not at practice. The only parents at practice were the coaches which was limited to one or two assistants. Carpool was such a big deal for me growing up. You knew which parents you wanted to ride with and which one's you didn't. I just think about me and other 4th graders waiting by ourselves at fields when a parent was running late with no cell phone. Nowadays they may call CYS lol.
I lived right beside the school after 5th grade, and all of the fields, courts, pool were on campus. Any kid who’s ride wasn’t available came home with me. Fortunately, my Mom was always great about having unknown numbers of kids waiting at our house, and even staying for dinner.
Oh man, nothing drives me more crazy is getting behind a school bus and they stopping every 100 yards, dropping their kids off, parent at the end of each drive way because we know their hoardes of gangs who want to kidnap their precious kids. Want to save energy? How about something called "a bus stop"?
Reading through this thread does give me some hope though. Most feel as I do. It has become overbearing (parental involvement) and now the outlier is the parent who doesn't attend every practice and event, where it used to be the parent who did.
Schools don’t allow kids to walk anymore. Even if a kid lives across street, they have to get dropped off or a bus. Maybe a safety thing, not sure.
The kids playing sports today are mentally tougher and more athletically gifted then the perception most have of their glory days. The parents push them more and things are organized better. I don't see why that is a bad thing. My parents pushed me to be the best....they would say 'Jivecat! You've got to be number one! I won't tolerate any losers in this family! Your intensity is for shit! Win! Win! Win!' You son of a bitch. You know, sometimes I wish my knee would give. And I wouldn't be able to wrestle anymore. And he could forget all about me.
Who else here played touch football at the bus stop?
I don't have kids but I have friends and family with them in all areas of athletics. It seems like the top end are probably way more advanced than the top level of yesteryear. It's probably affected the "average" athlete the most because kids aren't playing as many sports for as many years. The need to "specialize" at a sport at earlier ages doesn't allow the best football player to be a good hooper and baseball player.
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