Travel sports are killing American families

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s sad. The amount of time and money spent for 5-10 years and then poof!

Most kids will not play in college, most will not get scholarships, none will make the Olympics.

Life goes on. No one cares if you were in a club team and most won’t even care of you play D1.

Once you get have a job, get married and have kids none of this matters. No one cares.

Why do you think it's about other people caring? You must not be or never have been an athlete. The athletes care. My son loved playing lacrosse for as long as he could. There are no rec lacrosse teams after 6th grade around here. No desire to play in college, but he didn't keep playing because people cared that he played club lacrosse. What a weird argument against it.

But lacrosse is a weird sport with weird equipment, of course there is no wide interest in it: probably the people in clubs are the only ones playing (another reason for no one caring).

It’s been popular since the 70s in the northeast. Probably all our Canadian relatives brought it with the. It’s a really fun sport but so much safety equipment now, like hockey. There’s no high school team to play on?

I am not sure what your definition of fun is. I am sure some people find curling fun, but I am still not willing to try it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s sad. The amount of time and money spent for 5-10 years and then poof!

Most kids will not play in college, most will not get scholarships, none will make the Olympics.

Life goes on. No one cares if you were in a club team and most won’t even care of you play D1.

Once you get have a job, get married and have kids none of this matters. No one cares.

Why do you think it's about other people caring? You must not be or never have been an athlete. The athletes care. My son loved playing lacrosse for as long as he could. There are no rec lacrosse teams after 6th grade around here. No desire to play in college, but he didn't keep playing because people cared that he played club lacrosse. What a weird argument against it.

But lacrosse is a weird sport with weird equipment, of course there is no wide interest in it: probably the people in clubs are the only ones playing (another reason for no one caring).

It’s been popular since the 70s in the northeast. Probably all our Canadian relatives brought it with the. It’s a really fun sport but so much safety equipment now, like hockey. There’s no high school team to play on?

I am not sure what your definition of fun is. I am sure some people find curling fun, but I am still not willing to try it.

Lacrosse literally dates back to the 17th century, played by early American Indians; it is known as the first team sport in North America. So there must be something fun about it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s sad. The amount of time and money spent for 5-10 years and then poof!

Most kids will not play in college, most will not get scholarships, none will make the Olympics.

Life goes on. No one cares if you were in a club team and most won’t even care of you play D1.

Once you get have a job, get married and have kids none of this matters. No one cares.

No, then you start your own travel team and continue your lifelong passion coaching, teaching others, etc.

I'm not musical but don't begrudge people who spend a lot of time learning their instrument who will never play in college, get a scholarship, join the symphony, and will get a job like everyone else that has nothing to do with music. I don't care what they do with their time and money. They can play their instrument on the side as much as a former athlete can play their sport in the adult clubs out there.

Do you understand humor when you see it? Does it have to start with "knock-knock" or "yo mamma" for you to tell it's a joke?

Obviously it's ridiculous but we have a whole thread dedicated to "ruined American families" with people voicing this sentiment in unjoking terms. You may think you're joking but for sure people agree with you anyway. We see loads of negativity around sports but nobody starts threads to bash the musicians, chess players and spelling bee aficionados.

Who isn’t mocking spelling bee aficionados? I thought we all were?

Well, especially now that we know how much they pay to spell words that nobody uses in real life.

They are out of shape but can spell useless words. At least sports offers health benefits.

Especially football. Who doesn't want a little bit of chronic traumatic encephalopathy?

Well for some kids that’s the best chance they have.

Football is not an easy sport and let’s face it, men are awe of players like Tom Brady and wish they could do that.

There is a huge difference between wishing you can do something and actually doing it. The vast majority won't even come close to Tom Brady.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s sad. The amount of time and money spent for 5-10 years and then poof!

Most kids will not play in college, most will not get scholarships, none will make the Olympics.

Life goes on. No one cares if you were in a club team and most won’t even care of you play D1.

Once you get have a job, get married and have kids none of this matters. No one cares.

Why do you think it's about other people caring? You must not be or never have been an athlete. The athletes care. My son loved playing lacrosse for as long as he could. There are no rec lacrosse teams after 6th grade around here. No desire to play in college, but he didn't keep playing because people cared that he played club lacrosse. What a weird argument against it.

But lacrosse is a weird sport with weird equipment, of course there is no wide interest in it: probably the people in clubs are the only ones playing (another reason for no one caring).

It’s been popular since the 70s in the northeast. Probably all our Canadian relatives brought it with the. It’s a really fun sport but so much safety equipment now, like hockey. There’s no high school team to play on?

I am not sure what your definition of fun is. I am sure some people find curling fun, but I am still not willing to try it.

Lacrosse literally dates back to the 17th century, played by early American Indians; it is known as the first team sport in North America. So there must be something fun about it!

There's also curling and people pretending to find something fun in it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s sad. The amount of time and money spent for 5-10 years and then poof!

Most kids will not play in college, most will not get scholarships, none will make the Olympics.

Life goes on. No one cares if you were in a club team and most won’t even care of you play D1.

Once you get have a job, get married and have kids none of this matters. No one cares.

No, then you start your own travel team and continue your lifelong passion coaching, teaching others, etc.

I'm not musical but don't begrudge people who spend a lot of time learning their instrument who will never play in college, get a scholarship, join the symphony, and will get a job like everyone else that has nothing to do with music. I don't care what they do with their time and money. They can play their instrument on the side as much as a former athlete can play their sport in the adult clubs out there.

Do you understand humor when you see it? Does it have to start with "knock-knock" or "yo mamma" for you to tell it's a joke?

Obviously it's ridiculous but we have a whole thread dedicated to "ruined American families" with people voicing this sentiment in unjoking terms. You may think you're joking but for sure people agree with you anyway. We see loads of negativity around sports but nobody starts threads to bash the musicians, chess players and spelling bee aficionados.

I haven't heard of spelling bee parents paying thousands of dollars to put their spelling bee-ers in spelling bee clubs and wasting their weekends in spelling bee tournaments. Is there a whole industry taking advantage of these poor parents?

Yes, yes there is. Costs hundreds/thousands for the materials, private coaches ($50-200 per hour), entrance fees ($750) then travel to the various qualifying competitions. Must be terrible on the family life. All those hours studying alone or in groups. Sounds a lot like a travel sport.

https://theconversation.com/what-it-takes-to-become-a-spelling-bee-champ-206046
https://money.com/national-spelling-bee-costs/

There's a difference between the need to invest $1000s in an elite child trying to be a spelling bee champion (or an elite young athlete that can realistically be a D1 athlete/pro/Olympian/or the sports equivalent) vs investing $1000s to participate in local spelling bees (which doesn't occur). The bar for entry into relatively compelling spelling bees is extremely low. The bar for entry into competitive sports is unreasonably higher.

It makes sense to pay $1000s and dedicate hundreds of hours on a kid that can be a national champion in any activity. It doesn't make sense to pay $1000s for an average child to play soccer, baseball, basketball against other average kids

Only one will win and there's no predicting who will win in the beginning. So, no, it doesn't make "sense" you've just decided that some expenses align with your personal values and some don't. Because we don't actually know who will go all the way but plenty of people are willing to shoot their shot be it in sports, spelling bees, music, dance, singing, etc.

Well, you just need to convince enough parents that their kids have no chance to make the high school team without club experience, and they are willing to throw 1000s of dollars at the clubs. And yes, you can predict that most of the kids are not going to get a college scholarships and / or go to the Olympics. After one season, you can likely predict who is not even going to make the high school teams. But it's too tempting to milk the parents and maintain ther belief that Billy can become special if they spend more money on this hobby.

It's no different than all the people shelling out $$$ to tutoring places like AoPS, RSM, Kumon that their kids will all go to MIT. Thousands of dollars every year. No, they aren't all going to top engineering programs. It's very easy to convince people of this. Except those who are just glad their kid might go to state directional university. But if you aim a little higher, you need to pull out all the stops.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s sad. The amount of time and money spent for 5-10 years and then poof!

Most kids will not play in college, most will not get scholarships, none will make the Olympics.

Life goes on. No one cares if you were in a club team and most won’t even care of you play D1.

Once you get have a job, get married and have kids none of this matters. No one cares.

No, then you start your own travel team and continue your lifelong passion coaching, teaching others, etc.

I'm not musical but don't begrudge people who spend a lot of time learning their instrument who will never play in college, get a scholarship, join the symphony, and will get a job like everyone else that has nothing to do with music. I don't care what they do with their time and money. They can play their instrument on the side as much as a former athlete can play their sport in the adult clubs out there.

Do you understand humor when you see it? Does it have to start with "knock-knock" or "yo mamma" for you to tell it's a joke?

Obviously it's ridiculous but we have a whole thread dedicated to "ruined American families" with people voicing this sentiment in unjoking terms. You may think you're joking but for sure people agree with you anyway. We see loads of negativity around sports but nobody starts threads to bash the musicians, chess players and spelling bee aficionados.

Who isn’t mocking spelling bee aficionados? I thought we all were?

Well, especially now that we know how much they pay to spell words that nobody uses in real life.

They are out of shape but can spell useless words. At least sports offers health benefits.

Especially football. Who doesn't want a little bit of chronic traumatic encephalopathy?

Well for some kids that’s the best chance they have.

Football is not an easy sport and let’s face it, men are awe of players like Tom Brady and wish they could do that.

There is a huge difference between wishing you can do something and actually doing it. The vast majority won't even come close to Tom Brady.

Even Tom Brady didn't come into his own for quite awhile. He was #199 draft pick. You don't have a crystal ball anymore than anyone else. It's ok if you want to see the glass half empty for your kids, but other people will always be optimistic, as they should, because why not?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s sad. The amount of time and money spent for 5-10 years and then poof!

Most kids will not play in college, most will not get scholarships, none will make the Olympics.

Life goes on. No one cares if you were in a club team and most won’t even care of you play D1.

Once you get have a job, get married and have kids none of this matters. No one cares.

No, then you start your own travel team and continue your lifelong passion coaching, teaching others, etc.

I'm not musical but don't begrudge people who spend a lot of time learning their instrument who will never play in college, get a scholarship, join the symphony, and will get a job like everyone else that has nothing to do with music. I don't care what they do with their time and money. They can play their instrument on the side as much as a former athlete can play their sport in the adult clubs out there.

Do you understand humor when you see it? Does it have to start with "knock-knock" or "yo mamma" for you to tell it's a joke?

Obviously it's ridiculous but we have a whole thread dedicated to "ruined American families" with people voicing this sentiment in unjoking terms. You may think you're joking but for sure people agree with you anyway. We see loads of negativity around sports but nobody starts threads to bash the musicians, chess players and spelling bee aficionados.

I haven't heard of spelling bee parents paying thousands of dollars to put their spelling bee-ers in spelling bee clubs and wasting their weekends in spelling bee tournaments. Is there a whole industry taking advantage of these poor parents?

Yes, yes there is. Costs hundreds/thousands for the materials, private coaches ($50-200 per hour), entrance fees ($750) then travel to the various qualifying competitions. Must be terrible on the family life. All those hours studying alone or in groups. Sounds a lot like a travel sport.

https://theconversation.com/what-it-takes-to-become-a-spelling-bee-champ-206046
https://money.com/national-spelling-bee-costs/

There's a difference between the need to invest $1000s in an elite child trying to be a spelling bee champion (or an elite young athlete that can realistically be a D1 athlete/pro/Olympian/or the sports equivalent) vs investing $1000s to participate in local spelling bees (which doesn't occur). The bar for entry into relatively compelling spelling bees is extremely low. The bar for entry into competitive sports is unreasonably higher.

It makes sense to pay $1000s and dedicate hundreds of hours on a kid that can be a national champion in any activity. It doesn't make sense to pay $1000s for an average child to play soccer, baseball, basketball against other average kids

Only one will win and there's no predicting who will win in the beginning. So, no, it doesn't make "sense" you've just decided that some expenses align with your personal values and some don't. Because we don't actually know who will go all the way but plenty of people are willing to shoot their shot be it in sports, spelling bees, music, dance, singing, etc.

Well, you just need to convince enough parents that their kids have no chance to make the high school team without club experience, and they are willing to throw 1000s of dollars at the clubs. And yes, you can predict that most of the kids are not going to get a college scholarships and / or go to the Olympics. After one season, you can likely predict who is not even going to make the high school teams. But it's too tempting to milk the parents and maintain ther belief that Billy can become special if they spend more money on this hobby.

It's no different than all the people shelling out $$$ to tutoring places like AoPS, RSM, Kumon that their kids will all go to MIT. Thousands of dollars every year. No, they aren't all going to top engineering programs. It's very easy to convince people of this. Except those who are just glad their kid might go to state directional university. But if you aim a little higher, you need to pull out all the stops.

This is called whataboutism. Just because others are doing the same thing, it doesn't mean that this is right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s sad. The amount of time and money spent for 5-10 years and then poof!

Most kids will not play in college, most will not get scholarships, none will make the Olympics.

Life goes on. No one cares if you were in a club team and most won’t even care of you play D1.

Once you get have a job, get married and have kids none of this matters. No one cares.

No, then you start your own travel team and continue your lifelong passion coaching, teaching others, etc.

I'm not musical but don't begrudge people who spend a lot of time learning their instrument who will never play in college, get a scholarship, join the symphony, and will get a job like everyone else that has nothing to do with music. I don't care what they do with their time and money. They can play their instrument on the side as much as a former athlete can play their sport in the adult clubs out there.

Do you understand humor when you see it? Does it have to start with "knock-knock" or "yo mamma" for you to tell it's a joke?

Obviously it's ridiculous but we have a whole thread dedicated to "ruined American families" with people voicing this sentiment in unjoking terms. You may think you're joking but for sure people agree with you anyway. We see loads of negativity around sports but nobody starts threads to bash the musicians, chess players and spelling bee aficionados.

Who isn’t mocking spelling bee aficionados? I thought we all were?

Well, especially now that we know how much they pay to spell words that nobody uses in real life.

They are out of shape but can spell useless words. At least sports offers health benefits.

Especially football. Who doesn't want a little bit of chronic traumatic encephalopathy?

Well for some kids that’s the best chance they have.

Football is not an easy sport and let’s face it, men are awe of players like Tom Brady and wish they could do that.

There is a huge difference between wishing you can do something and actually doing it. The vast majority won't even come close to Tom Brady.

Even Tom Brady didn't come into his own for quite awhile. He was #199 draft pick. You don't have a crystal ball anymore than anyone else. It's ok if you want to see the glass half empty for your kids, but other people will always be optimistic, as they should, because why not?

It's exactly like everybody can become president. I mean there is a theoretical possibility, but then there is something called reality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s sad. The amount of time and money spent for 5-10 years and then poof!

Most kids will not play in college, most will not get scholarships, none will make the Olympics.

Life goes on. No one cares if you were in a club team and most won’t even care of you play D1.

Once you get have a job, get married and have kids none of this matters. No one cares.

No, then you start your own travel team and continue your lifelong passion coaching, teaching others, etc.

I'm not musical but don't begrudge people who spend a lot of time learning their instrument who will never play in college, get a scholarship, join the symphony, and will get a job like everyone else that has nothing to do with music. I don't care what they do with their time and money. They can play their instrument on the side as much as a former athlete can play their sport in the adult clubs out there.

Do you understand humor when you see it? Does it have to start with "knock-knock" or "yo mamma" for you to tell it's a joke?

Obviously it's ridiculous but we have a whole thread dedicated to "ruined American families" with people voicing this sentiment in unjoking terms. You may think you're joking but for sure people agree with you anyway. We see loads of negativity around sports but nobody starts threads to bash the musicians, chess players and spelling bee aficionados.

Who isn’t mocking spelling bee aficionados? I thought we all were?

Well, especially now that we know how much they pay to spell words that nobody uses in real life.

They are out of shape but can spell useless words. At least sports offers health benefits.

Especially football. Who doesn't want a little bit of chronic traumatic encephalopathy?

Well for some kids that’s the best chance they have.

Football is not an easy sport and let’s face it, men are awe of players like Tom Brady and wish they could do that.

There is a huge difference between wishing you can do something and actually doing it. The vast majority won't even come close to Tom Brady.

Even Tom Brady didn't come into his own for quite awhile. He was #199 draft pick. You don't have a crystal ball anymore than anyone else. It's ok if you want to see the glass half empty for your kids, but other people will always be optimistic, as they should, because why not?

It's exactly like everybody can become president. I mean there is a theoretical possibility, but then there is something called reality.

Nobody wants to be president anymore. You can rain on your kid's parade all day and tell them they'll never be anything so why try. But, you don't get to tell other people how to live their lives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s sad. The amount of time and money spent for 5-10 years and then poof!

Most kids will not play in college, most will not get scholarships, none will make the Olympics.

Life goes on. No one cares if you were in a club team and most won’t even care of you play D1.

Once you get have a job, get married and have kids none of this matters. No one cares.

No, then you start your own travel team and continue your lifelong passion coaching, teaching others, etc.

I'm not musical but don't begrudge people who spend a lot of time learning their instrument who will never play in college, get a scholarship, join the symphony, and will get a job like everyone else that has nothing to do with music. I don't care what they do with their time and money. They can play their instrument on the side as much as a former athlete can play their sport in the adult clubs out there.

Do you understand humor when you see it? Does it have to start with "knock-knock" or "yo mamma" for you to tell it's a joke?

Obviously it's ridiculous but we have a whole thread dedicated to "ruined American families" with people voicing this sentiment in unjoking terms. You may think you're joking but for sure people agree with you anyway. We see loads of negativity around sports but nobody starts threads to bash the musicians, chess players and spelling bee aficionados.

I haven't heard of spelling bee parents paying thousands of dollars to put their spelling bee-ers in spelling bee clubs and wasting their weekends in spelling bee tournaments. Is there a whole industry taking advantage of these poor parents?

Yes, yes there is. Costs hundreds/thousands for the materials, private coaches ($50-200 per hour), entrance fees ($750) then travel to the various qualifying competitions. Must be terrible on the family life. All those hours studying alone or in groups. Sounds a lot like a travel sport.

https://theconversation.com/what-it-takes-to-become-a-spelling-bee-champ-206046
https://money.com/national-spelling-bee-costs/

There's a difference between the need to invest $1000s in an elite child trying to be a spelling bee champion (or an elite young athlete that can realistically be a D1 athlete/pro/Olympian/or the sports equivalent) vs investing $1000s to participate in local spelling bees (which doesn't occur). The bar for entry into relatively compelling spelling bees is extremely low. The bar for entry into competitive sports is unreasonably higher.

It makes sense to pay $1000s and dedicate hundreds of hours on a kid that can be a national champion in any activity. It doesn't make sense to pay $1000s for an average child to play soccer, baseball, basketball against other average kids

Only one will win and there's no predicting who will win in the beginning. So, no, it doesn't make "sense" you've just decided that some expenses align with your personal values and some don't. Because we don't actually know who will go all the way but plenty of people are willing to shoot their shot be it in sports, spelling bees, music, dance, singing, etc.

Well, you just need to convince enough parents that their kids have no chance to make the high school team without club experience, and they are willing to throw 1000s of dollars at the clubs. And yes, you can predict that most of the kids are not going to get a college scholarships and / or go to the Olympics. After one season, you can likely predict who is not even going to make the high school teams. But it's too tempting to milk the parents and maintain ther belief that Billy can become special if they spend more money on this hobby.

It's no different than all the people shelling out $$$ to tutoring places like AoPS, RSM, Kumon that their kids will all go to MIT. Thousands of dollars every year. No, they aren't all going to top engineering programs. It's very easy to convince people of this. Except those who are just glad their kid might go to state directional university. But if you aim a little higher, you need to pull out all the stops.

This is called whataboutism. Just because others are doing the same thing, it doesn't mean that this is right.

And? Let's not talk about tutoring, that hits too close to home... back to sports!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s sad. The amount of time and money spent for 5-10 years and then poof!

Most kids will not play in college, most will not get scholarships, none will make the Olympics.

Life goes on. No one cares if you were in a club team and most won’t even care of you play D1.

Once you get have a job, get married and have kids none of this matters. No one cares.

Why do you think it's about other people caring? You must not be or never have been an athlete. The athletes care. My son loved playing lacrosse for as long as he could. There are no rec lacrosse teams after 6th grade around here. No desire to play in college, but he didn't keep playing because people cared that he played club lacrosse. What a weird argument against it.

But lacrosse is a weird sport with weird equipment, of course there is no wide interest in it: probably the people in clubs are the only ones playing (another reason for no one caring).

It’s been popular since the 70s in the northeast. Probably all our Canadian relatives brought it with the. It’s a really fun sport but so much safety equipment now, like hockey. There’s no high school team to play on?

I am not sure what your definition of fun is. I am sure some people find curling fun, but I am still not willing to try it.

Curling IS fun. But it’s for chill people who don’t have sticks up their butts, so it’s probably for the best that you stay away.

[Anonymous]

I just read this whole thread.

-- People keep blaming the travel sports "system" as if the parents have no agency or personal responsibility. The system exists because people want it to.

-- Focusing on D1 or whatever equivalent as the only worthy goal is short-sighted. Athletes (well adjusted ones anyway) just want to find out how good they can be. Giving it your all and just being a high school or D3 player is way better than living a life of regrets for giving up or not trying harder.

-- At least on my son's travel team, the players basically self-select who wants to be there and they push each other -- and get a lot better as a result! If a kid didn't want to be there, it would be obvious and short lived. I view it like being in an advanced math class or something. They play LL too, but most find it pretty boring.

-- Whether sports, music, theater, computers, etc. -- if the child has a interest/talent/passion, lead them to water they'll jump in if they want to do so. Don't push them in.

[Anonymous]

Kids need balance, not specialization. Routine family time should be part of the mix, so should having new experiences.

I remember when my kid’s track coach latched on to her. She thought we’d be there every Sat and Sun. I said hell no. We have other things to do. I didn’t care how good my kid was.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is pretty much everything. We dropped scouting because we kept hearing from other parents in the troop: “Eagle Scout is pretty much the only thing from your youth that you can put on a resume.” They acted accordingly.

Everything starts with noble intentions. But eventually that which is good can and will be corrupted as people try to exploit and optimize it.

FOMO is the other part. Many parents will do travel sports (dance, music, robotics, spelling, etc…) because they wish they had experienced that kind of investment as children. But your kid won’t appreciate it because they never knew not having it. Indeed, they may instead grow up shunning it because they want their eventual kids to have what they did not have: a laid back childhood.

We have one in travel and one on a local club team. We’ve tried to respond to their specific needs and situations, but ultimately they may choose a different path for their own children someday.

That’s a good point. I sometimes wonder whether the pendulum will swing the other way when the current generation grows up and has kids of their own. Maybe local rec sports and unstructured pickup games will become more popular. It’s interesting how many Olympic and pro athletes say they aren’t going to push their kids to do their sport (unless they want to).

Also interesting how many athletes have athletic kids. Maybe they don't always play the same sport, but goes to show there are inherited aspects. Famous children of athletes: Nastia Liukin, the Peyton and Eli Manning, Patrick Mahomes, Bronny James, Steph Curry, and on and on.

Nobody is going back to unstructured pick up games any more than we're going back to latch key kids. The kids aren't allowed to be unstructured or unsupervised like the good old days. So having your kids just sit out and be bored at home on weekends with nothing to do isn't going to change any minds.

Some parents in my town started a pickup sports program recently. It’s lightly supervised, but the kids show up and organize their own games. So far it’s been successful and popular.

How does this work? Is there a webpage? I’d be willing to start something like this for our town

[Anonymous]

My issue with rec teams is that sometimes there isn’t any real coaching or development. I am not blaming the parent volunteers, but it can be difficult when the children aren’t taught how to play the game better, skills they need to work on, etc.

We have pick-up soccer near us which my son can walk to and play with other kids, both younger and older, with usually no parents. He learned more skills from the other kids than rec soccer. We also live in an area where income is lower and parents can’t afford travel soccer, etc. so more kids just hang out in grassy fields (not soccer fields) on weekend afternoons before dinner.