Why do smart successful parents get sucked into all these scam sports leagues?

[Anonymous]

Maybe they realize we became a sedentary society and want their kids to exercise and it slowly becomes travel rather than just going to the club or rec center. They would have gotten that in the past by walking miles to school and that is gone now.

[Anonymous]

I will also add that I met the Cheer Leading mom. She had her kids in All Star cheer and then in high schools cheer. She is in competition with all the other moms to know more, do more, have more dinners and events, take over the coaches job even... I don't understand her at all. My kid is also a cheerleader and I don't like going to those football games and freezing. I even posted here about it. I think she is a SAHM, and even if I was I still wouldn't want to have 20 teen girls at my house for a sleepover. Her DD is a nice kid though, so in the end I thank her mom for doing what kids like and many of us don't want to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Perhaps they want something you don't?

We're not sporty but musical, and I took pains to choose a teaching method that would suit us as well as a great teacher. It's VERY expensive, but the difference in quality of teaching is incredible. However, non-musical parents probably wouldn't care.

So the rec tier is perhaps just for the families who want to occupy their children and have fun doing an activity they like. The upper tier is for families who care about becoming as proficient as possible in that particular sport (or in our case, music).

I'm the OP. Music is different. Theater is different. The arts, in general, are different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A) Some parents really need an "identity"- this is why you get "Baseball Mom," "Girl Scouts Mom," or "Cheerleading Mom." They derive a sense of purpose and identity from the activity that their child participates in and this reinforces that.

B) A lot of parents want to believe that their kids are really, really good at something. Being on an expensive "elite" league will do that for some parents.

C) A few are actually deluded into thinking this will get their kid noticed by colleges/the pros.

Or, alternatively, it's because my kids love playing soccer and playing 8 weeks in the fall and 8 weeks in the spring with rec was not enough. That's the only sport they want to play, so with travel, they can play it indoors in the winter, as well and in tournaments after the season ends. They are bummed on the days of the week that they don't have practice after school. With rec, they practiced one day a week. On travel, it's three days a week.

They play with the soccer ball in our yard or in our basement any chance they get, and never get tired of it. They're always working on foot skills. Playing on a rec league with players who aren't nearly as interested in the sport is not as fun or challenging and they want to get better.

It has nothing to do with my identity, my ego or playing in college. It's just what my kids enjoy doing.

[Anonymous]

^^to add, I don't know what the "scam" part means. I'm not getting scammed into anything. No false hopes being given here. And we don't want any future beyond high school anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, your level of hostility out of this seems out of proportion with how it could possibly affect you. Do you need more to worry about? Otherwise, you worry about you, ok?

I thought the same. The level of hostility reads like somebody who needs some help.

Defensive much?

No, it just seems bizarre to me, that's all, and as with most people I know who go straight to the weird, hostile theory, I kind of wonder about their outlook on life. Like, I'd assume that (say) my friends whose kids do the time-intensive theater performances get something out of it they value that I don't see before jumping to some large conspiracy theory involving theater performances. Doesn't that seem like the more rational conclusion?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Perhaps they want something you don't?

We're not sporty but musical, and I took pains to choose a teaching method that would suit us as well as a great teacher. It's VERY expensive, but the difference in quality of teaching is incredible. However, non-musical parents probably wouldn't care.

So the rec tier is perhaps just for the families who want to occupy their children and have fun doing an activity they like. The upper tier is for families who care about becoming as proficient as possible in that particular sport (or in our case, music).

I'm the OP. Music is different. Theater is different. The arts, in general, are different.

That is true. Theater parents make sports parents look like pikers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Perhaps they want something you don't?

We're not sporty but musical, and I took pains to choose a teaching method that would suit us as well as a great teacher. It's VERY expensive, but the difference in quality of teaching is incredible. However, non-musical parents probably wouldn't care.

So the rec tier is perhaps just for the families who want to occupy their children and have fun doing an activity they like. The upper tier is for families who care about becoming as proficient as possible in that particular sport (or in our case, music).

A music mom here. I can't agree that it equates perfectly as pp does. The music is more of a life skill/trade or such than soccer. But yes, we are commiting time/effort just the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Perhaps they want something you don't?

We're not sporty but musical, and I took pains to choose a teaching method that would suit us as well as a great teacher. It's VERY expensive, but the difference in quality of teaching is incredible. However, non-musical parents probably wouldn't care.

So the rec tier is perhaps just for the families who want to occupy their children and have fun doing an activity they like. The upper tier is for families who care about becoming as proficient as possible in that particular sport (or in our case, music).

I'm the OP. Music is different. Theater is different. The arts, in general, are different.

Only to you because your own personal priorities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will also add that I met the Cheer Leading mom. She had her kids in All Star cheer and then in high schools cheer. She is in competition with all the other moms to know more, do more, have more dinners and events, take over the coaches job even... I don't understand her at all. My kid is also a cheerleader and I don't like going to those football games and freezing. I even posted here about it. I think she is a SAHM, and even if I was I still wouldn't want to have 20 teen girls at my house for a sleepover. Her DD is a nice kid though, so in the end I thank her mom for doing what kids like and many of us don't want to do.

Isn't cheer and dance for proletariat ... where ballet/theater/classical instrument is bourgeoisie?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Perhaps they want something you don't?

We're not sporty but musical, and I took pains to choose a teaching method that would suit us as well as a great teacher. It's VERY expensive, but the difference in quality of teaching is incredible. However, non-musical parents probably wouldn't care.

So the rec tier is perhaps just for the families who want to occupy their children and have fun doing an activity they like. The upper tier is for families who care about becoming as proficient as possible in that particular sport (or in our case, music).

A music mom here. I can't agree that it equates perfectly as pp does. The music is more of a life skill/trade or such than soccer. But yes, we are commiting time/effort just the same.

How is music sooooo different? How is music a life skill/trade for the average person (not a prodigy) more so than a sport?

-Signed a two sport, two instrument player...and I make no money from any of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Perhaps they want something you don't?

We're not sporty but musical, and I took pains to choose a teaching method that would suit us as well as a great teacher. It's VERY expensive, but the difference in quality of teaching is incredible. However, non-musical parents probably wouldn't care.

So the rec tier is perhaps just for the families who want to occupy their children and have fun doing an activity they like. The upper tier is for families who care about becoming as proficient as possible in that particular sport (or in our case, music).

A music mom here. I can't agree that it equates perfectly as pp does. The music is more of a life skill/trade or such than soccer. But yes, we are commiting time/effort just the same.

Why do you see it as different? Being athletic and fit is as much a life skill as music, maybe more so because someone who builds a healthy body in youth and continues to engage in athletics as an adult is likely to be healthier than someone who is more sedentary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Perhaps they want something you don't?

We're not sporty but musical, and I took pains to choose a teaching method that would suit us as well as a great teacher. It's VERY expensive, but the difference in quality of teaching is incredible. However, non-musical parents probably wouldn't care.

So the rec tier is perhaps just for the families who want to occupy their children and have fun doing an activity they like. The upper tier is for families who care about becoming as proficient as possible in that particular sport (or in our case, music).

A music mom here. I can't agree that it equates perfectly as pp does. The music is more of a life skill/trade or such than soccer. But yes, we are commiting time/effort just the same.

Why do you see it as different? Being athletic and fit is as much a life skill as music, maybe more so because someone who builds a healthy body in youth and continues to engage in athletics as an adult is likely to be healthier than someone who is more sedentary.

Most of the former high school "studs" are washed up and fat by age 19.

[Anonymous]

Bored / delusional parents living through their kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:90% of the kids are mediocre and unappreciative? Not on our travel team. We switched to travel because in the rec league, everyone makes the team and plays, which is fine, but unless you have a coach who stacks the team (which I don't agree with), you can be subject to wildly varying abilities. Also kids who don't show up for half the games. Or who are only there because their parents forced them to play. Watching your dedicated kid lose game after game because you didn't have enough players or some kid couldn't be bothered to field balls coming at him is frustrating.

Travel teams have tryouts so not everyone makes it and they are expensive enough that parents and kids are invested in showing up.

This.