Travel sports are killing American families

[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.

In this environment, good coaches find paid positions to coach club teams. Even mediocre coaches find their way into coaching the lower-level club teams. Some assistant coaches are club players in the older age bracket. It is rare that you find a good coach in a rec league - clubs offer them paid positions pretty quickly. You end up with mostly unexperienced people who volunteer their time in rec leagues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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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.

Maybe.... I just don't care? I can afford it, kid enjoys it, we make the time, and it will all be over in a few short years. Sorry you can't stand to see it.

[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.

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

Don't forget curling. Curling seems to be even lower down the list. What human in their right mind would not try curling (at least once in their life time)?

[Anonymous]

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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.

Maybe.... I just don't care? I can afford it, kid enjoys it, we make the time, and it will all be over in a few short years. Sorry you can't stand to see it.

Maybe... other people care even if you don't? Shall we shut down the debate because YOU can afford it? This is the attitude that makes the sports inaccessible to a lot of kids.

[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:

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.

Maybe.... I just don't care? I can afford it, kid enjoys it, we make the time, and it will all be over in a few short years. Sorry you can't stand to see it.

Maybe... other people care even if you don't? Shall we shut down the debate because YOU can afford it? This is the attitude that makes the sports inaccessible to a lot of kids.

Yes, sports are inaccessible for so many kids for so many reasons. That's one of the huge problems with youth sports in general.

[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!

I hope you also require waivers and indemnity insurance for play dates, otherwise you're exposing yourself to liability.

[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:

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.

Maybe.... I just don't care? I can afford it, kid enjoys it, we make the time, and it will all be over in a few short years. Sorry you can't stand to see it.

Maybe... other people care even if you don't? Shall we shut down the debate because YOU can afford it? This is the attitude that makes the sports inaccessible to a lot of kids.

Yes, sports are inaccessible for so many kids for so many reasons. That's one of the huge problems with youth sports in general.

Not really. Isn't it like 80% of kids play youth sports?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

PP here. Since unsupervised pickup isn’t practical nowadays, this is a compromise where parents try to provide an approximation of that experience for kids. It’s not an alternate rec league that requires town permits and waivers and oversight. Parents aren’t refereeing and enforcing rules. Kids bring a ball, organize themselves and go play, while parents hang out on nearby benches or socialize with each other. It’s been going for several weeks. So far everyone has enjoyed themselves and made some new friends. Not sure why the concept is attracting so much hate. It’s just some parents looking to give their kids a low key environment to play sports, learn to regulate themselves, and have fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

PP here. Since unsupervised pickup isn’t practical nowadays, this is a compromise where parents try to provide an approximation of that experience for kids. It’s not an alternate rec league that requires town permits and waivers and oversight. Parents aren’t refereeing and enforcing rules. Kids bring a ball, organize themselves and go play, while parents hang out on nearby benches or socialize with each other. It’s been going for several weeks. So far everyone has enjoyed themselves and made some new friends. Not sure why the concept is attracting so much hate. It’s just some parents looking to give their kids a low key environment to play sports, learn to regulate themselves, and have fun.

These kids must be very young. Because I did all this when it was a MeetUp for parents of toddlers. Older kids do not play like this. Be honest, how old are the kids?

[Anonymous]

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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.

Maybe.... I just don't care? I can afford it, kid enjoys it, we make the time, and it will all be over in a few short years. Sorry you can't stand to see it.

Maybe... other people care even if you don't? Shall we shut down the debate because YOU can afford it? This is the attitude that makes the sports inaccessible to a lot of kids.

Who does care? You don't care, because you do travel. I don't care, because I do it as well. So, who exactly is complaining? What is the debate again? Not a single person is in here saying "Wish I could do it but alas, the cost." Not it's been almost entirely people complaining that other people are doing it so they feel forced to do it to. Rather than just taking their own stand and making decisions that they can live with.

[Anonymous]

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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?

PP here. Since unsupervised pickup isn’t practical nowadays, this is a compromise where parents try to provide an approximation of that experience for kids. It’s not an alternate rec league that requires town permits and waivers and oversight. Parents aren’t refereeing and enforcing rules. Kids bring a ball, organize themselves and go play, while parents hang out on nearby benches or socialize with each other. It’s been going for several weeks. So far everyone has enjoyed themselves and made some new friends. Not sure why the concept is attracting so much hate. It’s just some parents looking to give their kids a low key environment to play sports, learn to regulate themselves, and have fun.

These kids must be very young. Because I did all this when it was a MeetUp for parents of toddlers. Older kids do not play like this. Be honest, how old are the kids?

Mostly elementary age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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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?

PP here. Since unsupervised pickup isn’t practical nowadays, this is a compromise where parents try to provide an approximation of that experience for kids. It’s not an alternate rec league that requires town permits and waivers and oversight. Parents aren’t refereeing and enforcing rules. Kids bring a ball, organize themselves and go play, while parents hang out on nearby benches or socialize with each other. It’s been going for several weeks. So far everyone has enjoyed themselves and made some new friends. Not sure why the concept is attracting so much hate. It’s just some parents looking to give their kids a low key environment to play sports, learn to regulate themselves, and have fun.

These kids must be very young. Because I did all this when it was a MeetUp for parents of toddlers. Older kids do not play like this. Be honest, how old are the kids?

Mostly elementary age.

You’re being cagey so kinder and first?

[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 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?

PP here. Since unsupervised pickup isn’t practical nowadays, this is a compromise where parents try to provide an approximation of that experience for kids. It’s not an alternate rec league that requires town permits and waivers and oversight. Parents aren’t refereeing and enforcing rules. Kids bring a ball, organize themselves and go play, while parents hang out on nearby benches or socialize with each other. It’s been going for several weeks. So far everyone has enjoyed themselves and made some new friends. Not sure why the concept is attracting so much hate. It’s just some parents looking to give their kids a low key environment to play sports, learn to regulate themselves, and have fun.

These kids must be very young. Because I did all this when it was a MeetUp for parents of toddlers. Older kids do not play like this. Be honest, how old are the kids?

Mostly elementary age.

You’re being cagey so kinder and first?

NP. WTF is wrong with you? Nobody cares. Drop it.

[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:

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?

PP here. Since unsupervised pickup isn’t practical nowadays, this is a compromise where parents try to provide an approximation of that experience for kids. It’s not an alternate rec league that requires town permits and waivers and oversight. Parents aren’t refereeing and enforcing rules. Kids bring a ball, organize themselves and go play, while parents hang out on nearby benches or socialize with each other. It’s been going for several weeks. So far everyone has enjoyed themselves and made some new friends. Not sure why the concept is attracting so much hate. It’s just some parents looking to give their kids a low key environment to play sports, learn to regulate themselves, and have fun.

These kids must be very young. Because I did all this when it was a MeetUp for parents of toddlers. Older kids do not play like this. Be honest, how old are the kids?

Mostly elementary age.

You’re being cagey so kinder and first?

NP. WTF is wrong with you? Nobody cares. Drop it.

Look if you’re going to pretend a kindergarten play date at the park is going to take off and change youth sports you’re full of it.

[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:

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?

PP here. Since unsupervised pickup isn’t practical nowadays, this is a compromise where parents try to provide an approximation of that experience for kids. It’s not an alternate rec league that requires town permits and waivers and oversight. Parents aren’t refereeing and enforcing rules. Kids bring a ball, organize themselves and go play, while parents hang out on nearby benches or socialize with each other. It’s been going for several weeks. So far everyone has enjoyed themselves and made some new friends. Not sure why the concept is attracting so much hate. It’s just some parents looking to give their kids a low key environment to play sports, learn to regulate themselves, and have fun.

These kids must be very young. Because I did all this when it was a MeetUp for parents of toddlers. Older kids do not play like this. Be honest, how old are the kids?

Mostly elementary age.

You’re being cagey so kinder and first?

NP. WTF is wrong with you? Nobody cares. Drop it.

Look if you’re going to pretend a kindergarten play date at the park is going to take off and change youth sports you’re full of it.

Please point to where the PP claimed this was going to change the landscape of youth sports. Also please point to where they said it was kindergarteners. You're making up ridiculous assumptions inside your head and then attacking your own fantasy. Go do something constructive.