Allowing sports to rule your summer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m at a complete loss and I need someone with insight to help me understand.

My friend’s son is six and plays peewee city athletic league baseball. I’m unsure of all of the details but apparently this team always makes it to the playoffs, so they are anticipating that again this year—it’s her son’s first year. They have a long-planned vacation that starts two days before the “World Series” game, and she mentioned that if he makes it to the championship, they will cancel their trip, which means they will be out some event tickets that were pretty expensive.

Are parents really letting peewee sports dictate their lives like this? My child only vaguely remembers the rec basketball he played at age six, and he was all about it. I can’t imagine cancelling a vacation for his last game, especially in hindsight when I know it isn’t even something he really even remembers. I can’t fathom this at age six. I can’t make sense of it. Help!

Yes

Sorry for being so flippant, but yes this how it is now. You can be part of that world or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m at a complete loss and I need someone with insight to help me understand.

My friend’s son is six and plays peewee city athletic league baseball. I’m unsure of all of the details but apparently this team always makes it to the playoffs, so they are anticipating that again this year—it’s her son’s first year. They have a long-planned vacation that starts two days before the “World Series” game, and she mentioned that if he makes it to the championship, they will cancel their trip, which means they will be out some event tickets that were pretty expensive.

Are parents really letting peewee sports dictate their lives like this? My child only vaguely remembers the rec basketball he played at age six, and he was all about it. I can’t imagine cancelling a vacation for his last game, especially in hindsight when I know it isn’t even something he really even remembers. I can’t fathom this at age six. I can’t make sense of it. Help!

Yes

Sorry for being so flippant, but yes this how it is now. You can be part of that world or not.

I have no desire to be, but the more helpful responses have been enlightening. I can now see it’s less about “Johnny really loves football” and more about the sense of community for the family as a whole. People prioritize things differently, and perhaps I have a different community, so the sports community doesn’t look as appealing, so it makes a lot more sense now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m at a complete loss and I need someone with insight to help me understand.

My friend’s son is six and plays peewee city athletic league baseball. I’m unsure of all of the details but apparently this team always makes it to the playoffs, so they are anticipating that again this year—it’s her son’s first year. They have a long-planned vacation that starts two days before the “World Series” game, and she mentioned that if he makes it to the championship, they will cancel their trip, which means they will be out some event tickets that were pretty expensive.

Are parents really letting peewee sports dictate their lives like this? My child only vaguely remembers the rec basketball he played at age six, and he was all about it. I can’t imagine cancelling a vacation for his last game, especially in hindsight when I know it isn’t even something he really even remembers. I can’t fathom this at age six. I can’t make sense of it. Help!

Yes

Sorry for being so flippant, but yes this how it is now. You can be part of that world or not.

I have no desire to be, but the more helpful responses have been enlightening. I can now see it’s less about “Johnny really loves football” and more about the sense of community for the family as a whole. People prioritize things differently, and perhaps I have a different community, so the sports community doesn’t look as appealing, so it makes a lot more sense now.

OP this post makes it clearer why you posted originally. Helpful.

[Anonymous]

OP, I wonder if you feel the same way about families who can't do anything between Thanksgiving and Christmas because of their kid's Nutcracker performances?

(Asking this rhetorical question because I'm wondering whether your issue is with the parents' life revolving around the kid, or sports.)

[Anonymous]

Summer swim kind of rules our summer. It is fun for my DD, gets her some exercise, and gets the family outside. Don't yuck someone else's yum.

[Anonymous]

This is probably not a popular take but I don't really see summer as "my summer" anymore. My kids are 6 and 8 and I can already see how quickly their childhood is going. These are super fun times where we are building family members while they still think I am cool and want to hang out with me. It is their summer, or at best, our summer. There will be time for me to plan around me again before I know it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I wonder if you feel the same way about families who can't do anything between Thanksgiving and Christmas because of their kid's Nutcracker performances?

(Asking this rhetorical question because I'm wondering whether your issue is with the parents' life revolving around the kid, or sports.)

I would feel the same way, yes. But I would have no issues if my kid missed a school concert at age six so we could attend a family vacation.

[Anonymous]

6 is young and I would also roll my eyes. But sports teams teach commitment, and they become a community. So by age 10 it's as important as a vacation. This year they might have been caught off guard but in future years I'm sure they just won't schedule the vacation. So you'll just hear that they are at the tournament.

If your kid is on the right team, it can feel like a vacation! I have great memories of sidelines and travel with other team families when my son was in elementary school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m at a complete loss and I need someone with insight to help me understand.

My friend’s son is six and plays peewee city athletic league baseball. I’m unsure of all of the details but apparently this team always makes it to the playoffs, so they are anticipating that again this year—it’s her son’s first year. They have a long-planned vacation that starts two days before the “World Series” game, and she mentioned that if he makes it to the championship, they will cancel their trip, which means they will be out some event tickets that were pretty expensive.

Are parents really letting peewee sports dictate their lives like this? My child only vaguely remembers the rec basketball he played at age six, and he was all about it. I can’t imagine cancelling a vacation for his last game, especially in hindsight when I know it isn’t even something he really even remembers. I can’t fathom this at age six. I can’t make sense of it. Help!

Yes

Sorry for being so flippant, but yes this how it is now. You can be part of that world or not.

I have no desire to be, but the more helpful responses have been enlightening. I can now see it’s less about “Johnny really loves football” and more about the sense of community for the family as a whole. People prioritize things differently, and perhaps I have a different community, so the sports community doesn’t look as appealing, so it makes a lot more sense now.

Great now run along

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:6 is young and I would also roll my eyes. But sports teams teach commitment, and they become a community. So by age 10 it's as important as a vacation. This year they might have been caught off guard but in future years I'm sure they just won't schedule the vacation. So you'll just hear that they are at the tournament.

If your kid is on the right team, it can feel like a vacation! I have great memories of sidelines and travel with other team families when my son was in elementary school.

Yes, but also, what if you move? What happens to the “community” then? I mean, I get it, live in the “now”, but right now, I want to have time freedom while my kiddo is young. I guess I agree, but not at 6. They put WAY too much pressure on these little kids. Three years ago they were in diapers still, some of them. There is a time and a place for this sort of community.

[Anonymous]

It’s for the parent, not the kid.

A6 year old would be just as happy going to the pool hand hanging out with friend.

[Anonymous]

Why do you need to make sense of it? I’m fascinated when people post entire paragraphs about OTHER people’s choices and lives and say “help me understand.” There’s no need to, it isn’t your life nor is it impacting you in any way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not sports it's the lesson of being there for the team. It's a a very American thing. Some of us opt out of team sports for this reason and some of us are attracted to it for that reason.

Thus. If your team is going to the world series and 4 or 5 kids don’t go, the whole team can’t go. Baseball is a team sport. My son is in a similar team. They went last year and as a team we decided in advance that we’d go if they made it. A few kids stayed with other families which their parents continued vacation. It’s an experience of a lifetime. The kids had a blast.