Travel sports are killing American families

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

A couple of parents got together and posted on the town facebook page. It was basically “hey, we’re starting up a pickup sports group on Thursdays at 5:00 at X playground, bring your kids, you can stay or drop off, we will be there supervising”. It got an overwhelmingly positive response. Around 25 kids showed up the first week. Some played basketball, some played kickball, everyone had fun.

That would be awesome if you started a similar group in your town! I bet you’d have a lot of grateful parents willing to participate and help out

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

A couple of parents got together and posted on the town facebook page. It was basically “hey, we’re starting up a pickup sports group on Thursdays at 5:00 at X playground, bring your kids, you can stay or drop off, we will be there supervising”. It got an overwhelmingly positive response. Around 25 kids showed up the first week. Some played basketball, some played kickball, everyone had fun.

That would be awesome if you started a similar group in your town! I bet you’d have a lot of grateful parents willing to participate and help out

So, it's pickup, with parents helping and supervising and lots of kids turn out. So it's a lot like rec without the insurance and rental fees. This won't last long.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

A couple of parents got together and posted on the town facebook page. It was basically “hey, we’re starting up a pickup sports group on Thursdays at 5:00 at X playground, bring your kids, you can stay or drop off, we will be there supervising”. It got an overwhelmingly positive response. Around 25 kids showed up the first week. Some played basketball, some played kickball, everyone had fun.

That would be awesome if you started a similar group in your town! I bet you’d have a lot of grateful parents willing to participate and help out

So, it's pickup, with parents helping and supervising and lots of kids turn out. So it's a lot like rec without the insurance and rental fees. This won't last long.

It would last until either a kid got hurt, wandered away or a team with field permits showed up

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

A couple of parents got together and posted on the town facebook page. It was basically “hey, we’re starting up a pickup sports group on Thursdays at 5:00 at X playground, bring your kids, you can stay or drop off, we will be there supervising”. It got an overwhelmingly positive response. Around 25 kids showed up the first week. Some played basketball, some played kickball, everyone had fun.

That would be awesome if you started a similar group in your town! I bet you’d have a lot of grateful parents willing to participate and help out

So, it's pickup, with parents helping and supervising and lots of kids turn out. So it's a lot like rec without the insurance and rental fees. This won't last long.

It would last until either a kid got hurt, wandered away or a team with field permits showed up

Shouldn't take long. Or the parents will start complaining about being taken advantage of by being forced to watch other kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Who is this and why is his opinion about anything valid or influential.

This is called the appeal-to-authority fallacy. Please realize that it doesn't matter who said it if it's well argued and supported by evidence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

I think the talented coaches, at least in our league, would consider sticking with rec longer if the parents helped out even a tiny bit. DH coached and he was good at skill development, but he burned out because he could barely even get parents to help run stations or even be there to bark at their kids when they were distracting the entire team by not paying attention. If rec is being treated as babysitting, why would any coach who cares want to do that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

A couple of parents got together and posted on the town facebook page. It was basically “hey, we’re starting up a pickup sports group on Thursdays at 5:00 at X playground, bring your kids, you can stay or drop off, we will be there supervising”. It got an overwhelmingly positive response. Around 25 kids showed up the first week. Some played basketball, some played kickball, everyone had fun.

That would be awesome if you started a similar group in your town! I bet you’d have a lot of grateful parents willing to participate and help out

So, it's pickup, with parents helping and supervising and lots of kids turn out. So it's a lot like rec without the insurance and rental fees. This won't last long.

It would last until either a kid got hurt, wandered away or a team with field permits showed up

Yes, because being locked up indoors with screens by catastrophizing parents is so much healthier for kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

NP I do this occasionally by texting the group chats from our former team with a time/place and tell them to invite anyone who might like to join. Sometimes 5 kids come, other times it’s 15-20. I pick a park that has baseball and basketball so that if one is in use there is a backup

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

A couple of parents got together and posted on the town facebook page. It was basically “hey, we’re starting up a pickup sports group on Thursdays at 5:00 at X playground, bring your kids, you can stay or drop off, we will be there supervising”. It got an overwhelmingly positive response. Around 25 kids showed up the first week. Some played basketball, some played kickball, everyone had fun.

That would be awesome if you started a similar group in your town! I bet you’d have a lot of grateful parents willing to participate and help out

So, it's pickup, with parents helping and supervising and lots of kids turn out. So it's a lot like rec without the insurance and rental fees. This won't last long.

It would last until either a kid got hurt, wandered away or a team with field permits showed up

I’m married to a lawyer, but 100% I would want signed waivers from each and every parent/guardian as well ideally a 6:1 kid:adult ratio, but 10:1 at least!

[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.

I’m no lacrosse fan, but you seem weirdly and staunchly anti-lacrosse for no good reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

A couple of parents got together and posted on the town facebook page. It was basically “hey, we’re starting up a pickup sports group on Thursdays at 5:00 at X playground, bring your kids, you can stay or drop off, we will be there supervising”. It got an overwhelmingly positive response. Around 25 kids showed up the first week. Some played basketball, some played kickball, everyone had fun.

That would be awesome if you started a similar group in your town! I bet you’d have a lot of grateful parents willing to participate and help out

So, it's pickup, with parents helping and supervising and lots of kids turn out. So it's a lot like rec without the insurance and rental fees. This won't last long.

It would last until either a kid got hurt, wandered away or a team with field permits showed up

Yes, because being locked up indoors with screens by catastrophizing parents is so much healthier for kids.

The idea of pick up isn't that a group of parents go down to the park and organize and oversee games. The point is the kids organize, enforce the rules, and oversee the games. What was stopping any of these parents from taking their kids to the park anyway if they have the time and inclination to start up this alternate rec league that meets at a certain place and time every week?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

A couple of parents got together and posted on the town facebook page. It was basically “hey, we’re starting up a pickup sports group on Thursdays at 5:00 at X playground, bring your kids, you can stay or drop off, we will be there supervising”. It got an overwhelmingly positive response. Around 25 kids showed up the first week. Some played basketball, some played kickball, everyone had fun.

That would be awesome if you started a similar group in your town! I bet you’d have a lot of grateful parents willing to participate and help out

So, it's pickup, with parents helping and supervising and lots of kids turn out. So it's a lot like rec without the insurance and rental fees. This won't last long.

It would last until either a kid got hurt, wandered away or a team with field permits showed up

I’m married to a lawyer, but 100% I would want signed waivers from each and every parent/guardian as well ideally a 6:1 kid:adult ratio, but 10:1 at least!

You should also expect background checks on every parent/adult in the vicinity and expect a signup genius so everyone can pitch in and take turns bringing snacks and refreshments.

[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:

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.

Because it's either you tell your kids that they can be presidents OR you tell them that they'll never be anything. There is no middle ground no matter how hard you try.

[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.

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!

We are doing travel and no tutoring (or spelling bees or whatever). It is not hard to see that the clubs take advantage of the parents. You can refuse to see it, but it is right there whether you accept it or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Where is there pick up soccer in the DMV for kids? They have it for adults around me but not kids.