Mindset of Travel Sport Parents

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It probably goes without saying that at least 40% of the parents responding to this post fall into the category of this sports study.

https://footballscoop.com/news/study-nearly-40-young-athletes-dont-want-parents-games

I disagree. The majority of posters on here say they sign their kids up for a travel sport with no expectation that the kids will even play in college, let alone go pro. Reasons cited: friendship, work ethic, character building, competition (local sports market not enough), love of the sport. Especially those of us who've played a college sport - we know what it took to get and stay there and recognize that for most, it's not worth the sacrifice, but if your kids love their sport and are driven, you support them within your means. We've had teammates whose parents are like the ones cited in the article, but they are typically not self-aware and not as educated as the people posting here.

The article says that 40% of all kids don’t want their parents attending their sporting events…the example of the horrible parents in the article were travel parents.

Not sure why people are saying it’s the rec parents that are terrible…they are everywhere.

I know, right? Sports parents are SO much worse than the overly involved tiger moms who are harassing teachers right out of their careers these days…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It probably goes without saying that at least 40% of the parents responding to this post fall into the category of this sports study.

https://footballscoop.com/news/study-nearly-40-young-athletes-dont-want-parents-games

I disagree. The majority of posters on here say they sign their kids up for a travel sport with no expectation that the kids will even play in college, let alone go pro. Reasons cited: friendship, work ethic, character building, competition (local sports market not enough), love of the sport. Especially those of us who've played a college sport - we know what it took to get and stay there and recognize that for most, it's not worth the sacrifice, but if your kids love their sport and are driven, you support them within your means. We've had teammates whose parents are like the ones cited in the article, but they are typically not self-aware and not as educated as the people posting here.

The article says that 40% of all kids don’t want their parents attending their sporting events…the example of the horrible parents in the article were travel parents.

Not sure why people are saying it’s the rec parents that are terrible…they are everywhere.

The anecdotal story is about a HS football parent. Not a travel parent.

And The link supporting the 37% doesn't go anywhere. I'd be curious to learn more about it. But honestly, I wouldnt be using that link from "footballscoop.com" to back up any claim

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It probably goes without saying that at least 40% of the parents responding to this post fall into the category of this sports study.

https://footballscoop.com/news/study-nearly-40-young-athletes-dont-want-parents-games

I disagree. The majority of posters on here say they sign their kids up for a travel sport with no expectation that the kids will even play in college, let alone go pro. Reasons cited: friendship, work ethic, character building, competition (local sports market not enough), love of the sport. Especially those of us who've played a college sport - we know what it took to get and stay there and recognize that for most, it's not worth the sacrifice, but if your kids love their sport and are driven, you support them within your means. We've had teammates whose parents are like the ones cited in the article, but they are typically not self-aware and not as educated as the people posting here.

The article says that 40% of all kids don’t want their parents attending their sporting events…the example of the horrible parents in the article were travel parents.

Not sure why people are saying it’s the rec parents that are terrible…they are everywhere.

The anecdotal story is about a HS football parent. Not a travel parent.

And The link supporting the 37% doesn't go anywhere. I'd be curious to learn more about it. But honestly, I wouldnt be using that link from "footballscoop.com" to back up any claim

It was a basketball parent and a kid getting a college offer. No kid getting a college basketball offer isn’t playing AAU.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It probably goes without saying that at least 40% of the parents responding to this post fall into the category of this sports study.

https://footballscoop.com/news/study-nearly-40-young-athletes-dont-want-parents-games

I disagree. The majority of posters on here say they sign their kids up for a travel sport with no expectation that the kids will even play in college, let alone go pro. Reasons cited: friendship, work ethic, character building, competition (local sports market not enough), love of the sport. Especially those of us who've played a college sport - we know what it took to get and stay there and recognize that for most, it's not worth the sacrifice, but if your kids love their sport and are driven, you support them within your means. We've had teammates whose parents are like the ones cited in the article, but they are typically not self-aware and not as educated as the people posting here.

The article says that 40% of all kids don’t want their parents attending their sporting events…the example of the horrible parents in the article were travel parents.

Not sure why people are saying it’s the rec parents that are terrible…they are everywhere.

The anecdotal story is about a HS football parent. Not a travel parent.

And The link supporting the 37% doesn't go anywhere. I'd be curious to learn more about it. But honestly, I wouldnt be using that link from "footballscoop.com" to back up any claim

It was a basketball parent and a kid getting a college offer. No kid getting a college basketball offer isn’t playing AAU.

Also, what was that percentage in 2014? in 2004? in 1994? I remember being in HS in 1994, and not wanting my parents at my games, but it had nothing to do with my Mom or Dad being obnoxious.

That article is ridicilous without historical context or asking "WHY" they don't want their parents there. They cite a poll of student athletes and then let an official provide the reason why? gimme a break

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It probably goes without saying that at least 40% of the parents responding to this post fall into the category of this sports study.

https://footballscoop.com/news/study-nearly-40-young-athletes-dont-want-parents-games

I disagree. The majority of posters on here say they sign their kids up for a travel sport with no expectation that the kids will even play in college, let alone go pro. Reasons cited: friendship, work ethic, character building, competition (local sports market not enough), love of the sport. Especially those of us who've played a college sport - we know what it took to get and stay there and recognize that for most, it's not worth the sacrifice, but if your kids love their sport and are driven, you support them within your means. We've had teammates whose parents are like the ones cited in the article, but they are typically not self-aware and not as educated as the people posting here.

The article says that 40% of all kids don’t want their parents attending their sporting events…the example of the horrible parents in the article were travel parents.

Not sure why people are saying it’s the rec parents that are terrible…they are everywhere.

The anecdotal story is about a HS football parent. Not a travel parent.

And The link supporting the 37% doesn't go anywhere. I'd be curious to learn more about it. But honestly, I wouldnt be using that link from "footballscoop.com" to back up any claim

It was a basketball parent and a kid getting a college offer. No kid getting a college basketball offer isn’t playing AAU.

Also, what was that percentage in 2014? in 2004? in 1994? I remember being in HS in 1994, and not wanting my parents at my games, but it had nothing to do with my Mom or Dad being obnoxious.

That article is ridicilous without historical context or asking "WHY" they don't want their parents there. They cite a poll of student athletes and then let an official provide the reason why? gimme a break

I'll add: I didnt want my parents there bc if things went poorly, I didn't want to hear "that's okay. you did great' you'll get them next time" i found that worse than the honest feedback of "you sucked today"

So a totally different reason than what the author just conjured up out of thin air

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It probably goes without saying that at least 40% of the parents responding to this post fall into the category of this sports study.

https://footballscoop.com/news/study-nearly-40-young-athletes-dont-want-parents-games

I disagree. The majority of posters on here say they sign their kids up for a travel sport with no expectation that the kids will even play in college, let alone go pro. Reasons cited: friendship, work ethic, character building, competition (local sports market not enough), love of the sport. Especially those of us who've played a college sport - we know what it took to get and stay there and recognize that for most, it's not worth the sacrifice, but if your kids love their sport and are driven, you support them within your means. We've had teammates whose parents are like the ones cited in the article, but they are typically not self-aware and not as educated as the people posting here.

The article says that 40% of all kids don’t want their parents attending their sporting events…the example of the horrible parents in the article were travel parents.

Not sure why people are saying it’s the rec parents that are terrible…they are everywhere.

The anecdotal story is about a HS football parent. Not a travel parent.

And The link supporting the 37% doesn't go anywhere. I'd be curious to learn more about it. But honestly, I wouldnt be using that link from "footballscoop.com" to back up any claim

It was a basketball parent and a kid getting a college offer. No kid getting a college basketball offer isn’t playing AAU.

Also, what was that percentage in 2014? in 2004? in 1994? I remember being in HS in 1994, and not wanting my parents at my games, but it had nothing to do with my Mom or Dad being obnoxious.

That article is ridicilous without historical context or asking "WHY" they don't want their parents there. They cite a poll of student athletes and then let an official provide the reason why? gimme a break

Sure…come up with your own ridiculous reasons why they don’t want their parents to attend…except the obvious reason (and the first two paragraphs)…that their parents are out of control.

Go research the source Youth Sports Statistics that they cite in the article if you actually care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the mindset of parents who sign their pre-teens up for intense travel sports? Are they trying to keep up with the Jones'? Hoping their kid will get a baseball scholarship? Hoping their kid will be the next David Beckham? I just don't understand the appeal of an entire family sacrificing all of their weekend and weeknight time to these leagues. Patrice's multiple night s a week sometimes an hour away from home, tournaments lasting all weekend long four hours away, how do so many parents get sucked in?

They are delusional failed athletes themselves

Tell me you never played sports seriously without telling me.

Personally, I’ve never met a “failed” athlete. Sports are about trying hard and learning about yourself. I know two guys who played basketball professionally internationally. Both got workouts with NBA teams, and both learned that they are not one of the 450 best in the world at basketball. I wonder if PP considers that “failure.” I sure don’t.

Somewhere in a storage unit, I have a gold medal from the world championship in an obscure sport. I value my 3:40 marathon and my 260 bench press (both total couch potato stats) far more because they were harder for me and more recent. For OP, I’m sure both would be failures, but that’s not really how sports works in my experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It probably goes without saying that at least 40% of the parents responding to this post fall into the category of this sports study.

https://footballscoop.com/news/study-nearly-40-young-athletes-dont-want-parents-games

I disagree. The majority of posters on here say they sign their kids up for a travel sport with no expectation that the kids will even play in college, let alone go pro. Reasons cited: friendship, work ethic, character building, competition (local sports market not enough), love of the sport. Especially those of us who've played a college sport - we know what it took to get and stay there and recognize that for most, it's not worth the sacrifice, but if your kids love their sport and are driven, you support them within your means. We've had teammates whose parents are like the ones cited in the article, but they are typically not self-aware and not as educated as the people posting here.

The article says that 40% of all kids don’t want their parents attending their sporting events…the example of the horrible parents in the article were travel parents.

Not sure why people are saying it’s the rec parents that are terrible…they are everywhere.

The anecdotal story is about a HS football parent. Not a travel parent.

And The link supporting the 37% doesn't go anywhere. I'd be curious to learn more about it. But honestly, I wouldnt be using that link from "footballscoop.com" to back up any claim

It was a basketball parent and a kid getting a college offer. No kid getting a college basketball offer isn’t playing AAU.

Also, what was that percentage in 2014? in 2004? in 1994? I remember being in HS in 1994, and not wanting my parents at my games, but it had nothing to do with my Mom or Dad being obnoxious.

That article is ridicilous without historical context or asking "WHY" they don't want their parents there. They cite a poll of student athletes and then let an official provide the reason why? gimme a break

I'll add: I didnt want my parents there bc if things went poorly, I didn't want to hear "that's okay. you did great' you'll get them next time" i found that worse than the honest feedback of "you sucked today"

So a totally different reason than what the author just conjured up out of thin air

Does it matter if that is your reason or if the reason is the parent tells them they suck (which I gather most kids don’t want to hear) or the parents have outbursts yelling at the refs? The kids would still prefer they didn’t attend…or more accurately, if you do attend just say nothing (either during or after the games).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the mindset of parents who sign their pre-teens up for intense travel sports? Are they trying to keep up with the Jones'? Hoping their kid will get a baseball scholarship? Hoping their kid will be the next David Beckham? I just don't understand the appeal of an entire family sacrificing all of their weekend and weeknight time to these leagues. Patrice's multiple night s a week sometimes an hour away from home, tournaments lasting all weekend long four hours away, how do so many parents get sucked in?

They are delusional failed athletes themselves

Tell me you never played sports seriously without telling me.

Personally, I’ve never met a “failed” athlete. Sports are about trying hard and learning about yourself. I know two guys who played basketball professionally internationally. Both got workouts with NBA teams, and both learned that they are not one of the 450 best in the world at basketball. I wonder if PP considers that “failure.” I sure don’t.

Somewhere in a storage unit, I have a gold medal from the world championship in an obscure sport. I value my 3:40 marathon and my 260 bench press (both total couch potato stats) far more because they were harder for me and more recent. For OP, I’m sure both would be failures, but that’s not really how sports works in my experience.

3:40 marathon and 260 bench ? Wow what a loser to boast this

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why why why do people start all of these threads bashing travel sports?

Simply put: travel sports are not for everyone. “Travel team” means a wide range of things for different sports, age groups and areas. Families choose this path for lots of reasons but, while there’s no question that some parents are delusional, most of us are in it because our kid loves the sport, we love our kids, and it makes sense for our family. Yes our yard and house may not be up to standards but I’m willing to bet that our kid will remember his sports experiences from childhood vs the state of our yard/house. We reassess our commitment to the team/training every year and if at some point it becomes too much we’ll make a change. Sports take up a lot of time but we all love sports.

+ 1 to the PP who made the theater comment. I loathe drama/musical/theater. I understand that many, many people enjoy it. I don’t feel the need to disparage their choices.

Yes. My kids are older teens now and by far the worst parental behavior I ever saw was in theater. It was genuinely shocking. Yet I don’t go around asking why people put their kids on theater or whether they delusionally believe their kids are the next Zendaya. I assume that they have their reasons and they like going to their children’s theater performances and can deal with the terrible parent behavior effectively.

These repeated threads on DCUM are so weird to me, because I cannot imagine going through my life as angry as OP and some of the PPs are that someone else made a different choice with their kids. Nobody is making your kids to club sports or theater or whatever. Just don’t do something if you don’t like it. No need to carry around the seething rage that some of you do when faced with parents who make different choices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the mindset of parents who sign their pre-teens up for intense travel sports? Are they trying to keep up with the Jones'? Hoping their kid will get a baseball scholarship? Hoping their kid will be the next David Beckham? I just don't understand the appeal of an entire family sacrificing all of their weekend and weeknight time to these leagues. Patrice's multiple night s a week sometimes an hour away from home, tournaments lasting all weekend long four hours away, how do so many parents get sucked in?

They are delusional failed athletes themselves

Tell me you never played sports seriously without telling me.

Personally, I’ve never met a “failed” athlete. Sports are about trying hard and learning about yourself. I know two guys who played basketball professionally internationally. Both got workouts with NBA teams, and both learned that they are not one of the 450 best in the world at basketball. I wonder if PP considers that “failure.” I sure don’t.

Somewhere in a storage unit, I have a gold medal from the world championship in an obscure sport. I value my 3:40 marathon and my 260 bench press (both total couch potato stats) far more because they were harder for me and more recent. For OP, I’m sure both would be failures, but that’s not really how sports works in my experience.

3:40 marathon and 260 bench ? Wow what a loser to boast this

Come on. 2/3 of people are overweight or obese.

The PP’s point was that sports are about achieving personal milestones. Avoiding obesity seems to be a pretty good personal milestone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It probably goes without saying that at least 40% of the parents responding to this post fall into the category of this sports study.

https://footballscoop.com/news/study-nearly-40-young-athletes-dont-want-parents-games

I disagree. The majority of posters on here say they sign their kids up for a travel sport with no expectation that the kids will even play in college, let alone go pro. Reasons cited: friendship, work ethic, character building, competition (local sports market not enough), love of the sport. Especially those of us who've played a college sport - we know what it took to get and stay there and recognize that for most, it's not worth the sacrifice, but if your kids love their sport and are driven, you support them within your means. We've had teammates whose parents are like the ones cited in the article, but they are typically not self-aware and not as educated as the people posting here.

+1

In fact, in my experience, rec dads are WAY worse that travel dads.

Most travel dads get "it." They see enough of the other competition to know where their kid falls. The rec dads are the glory dads that think their kid is amazing bc they have the only kid that can hit it to the outfield grass.

+1

The worst parent behavior I ever saw, bar none, was at a rec game where a mom screamed at a four-year-old who cheered on his brother getting past her son. It was shocking. I think the rec parents are far more unhinged because many of them don’t want their kids to ever feel a negative feeling in sports or life in general.

[Anonymous]

We do it because if they didn’t our son would be a basement dwelling video gamer eating potato chips all day and our daughter would be engrossed in TikTok and instagram. It teaches them healthy fitness and eating habits, time management, and all the other things that go along with team sports. Plus they like it and it’s fun. They both play hockey and there is absolutely no way either of them will play in college other than club. None of the other parents we encounter are delusional either. It’s all in all a positive experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We do it because if they didn’t our son would be a basement dwelling video gamer eating potato chips all day and our daughter would be engrossed in TikTok and instagram. It teaches them healthy fitness and eating habits, time management, and all the other things that go along with team sports. Plus they like it and it’s fun. They both play hockey and there is absolutely no way either of them will play in college other than club. None of the other parents we encounter are delusional either. It’s all in all a positive experience.

You’re admitting your kids are bums

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We do it because if they didn’t our son would be a basement dwelling video gamer eating potato chips all day and our daughter would be engrossed in TikTok and instagram. It teaches them healthy fitness and eating habits, time management, and all the other things that go along with team sports. Plus they like it and it’s fun. They both play hockey and there is absolutely no way either of them will play in college other than club. None of the other parents we encounter are delusional either. It’s all in all a positive experience.

You’re admitting your kids are bums

No. I’m admitting that the way society is structured now kids won’t get enough exercise unless they’re in some sort of organized program.