What sports have the best kids, parents, vibe?

[Anonymous]

ISO engaging activities or sports leagues that my 8-year-old daughter might enjoy this fall. She's not particularly interested in soccer, which seems to be the go-to for many of her school friends. Instead, she enjoys playing tennis casually and has shown curiosity about lacrosse. Are there any lesser-known sports or activities that your kids have enjoyed? Maybe something that combines a bit of learning with physical activity?

[Anonymous]

ski team

[Anonymous]

Polo

[Anonymous]

martial arts

[Anonymous]

Follow her lead, op. Also, there is a lot of learning that happens with sports including social emotional learning, strategy, and the boost your brain gets from anything athletic is helpful. Don't think of it as just a physical thing.


There are a ton of options - team and non team sports. Dance (ballet, Irish dance, tap, jazz etc) swimming, softball, field hockey, rock climbing, running, gymnastics etc. My kids did them all at some point and while one ended up loving team sports, one didn't. Parents were basically the same everywhere until you get to higher levels. Enjoy the ride!

[Anonymous]

My daughter has made very close friends with volleyball. The girls are so nice and supportive. She started playing at age 8 in rec classes but now plays club at age 12

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:martial arts

Snooze

[Anonymous]

Every sport has pockets of supportive parents and pockets of intolerable ones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every sport has pockets of supportive parents and pockets of intolerable ones.

This. But in general, rec sports have been wonderful for my kids. We do play soccer, but we have the best teams. Laid back parents, nice kids, it's great. One of my kids played on 2 other teams before this one, and one of those was also great and the other was a complete dud (checked out parents, kids barely showing up bc they played higher level soccer somewhere else etc).

So any sport that has a rec team would be my suggestion.

[Anonymous]

If she has enjoyed tennis, I would lean into it. It’s a great sport for brain development.

[Anonymous]

wrestling

[Anonymous]

So much of it is luck- some teams end up really bonding, some teams you'll never learn the other parents name. Best bet is to do sports tied to your school (soccer, softball are good for this).

My kids have done a lot of sports and I'll say the only one where I found really annoying parents was lacrosse.

[Anonymous]

Cross country

[Anonymous]

IME - none, really. Doesn’t really exist.

Between my 3 kids (teens) they have done nearly every sport at some point or another.

There are always some nice parents/kids and some who are not very nice- and in any group/team there is usually at least one seriously crazy parent or coach.

We’ve found baseball and competitive dance to be slightly worse than the rest. Swim to be somewhat better than the rest.

[Anonymous]

Follow your daughter's interests. Then find the club/team with the least offensive parents and kids and a schedule that works for your family. Maybe Field Hockey? DD did that for awhile and families were nice, but we bailed around 11 because she got into other things and it got more competitive than what she wanted.