Travel Sports - "They Love It"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The ones I know it is more about the socialization for kid & parents. The parents have money so it is nice hotels, nice meals, lots of alcohol for parents.

It’s pretty much this. We can afford it and I’m a middle age parent without much of a social life. I don’t care if my kid plays in college. That’s not the point.

Think of this like a giant sleepover without the hassle of the sleepover. My daughter loves the sport and plays the games and then they all have fun in the indoor pool. Later they meet up somewhere for dinner. I’m at a table in a different part of the restaurant socializing with parents, because is this also my social life and like a mini vacation. It’s a nice hotel and a nice restaurant in a different city. Who cares if we are in a city or in the middle of nowhere. It’s a break from work and normal life.

Yes. She loves it and I love it. But we both love travel and nice hotels.

Life becomes so much nicer when you have money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I realize this is a troll post, but I can’t help myself.

OP, imagine whatever activity your kid likes best.

They get the opportunity to do it three or four times in a single weekend with a dozen or so friends, plus a couple of group meals, and ideally a stay in a hotel with an indoor pool where they get to spend evenings together.

Is it really that hard to understand that kids might really enjoy something like that?

NP here but I imagine plenty of kids do love it, but not all of them. I'm willing to bet there's a few on each team who would rather be on a rec team.

[Anonymous]

I think the proliferation of travel teams can sometimes have a negative impact on Rec sports. For example, kids who are forced to play on little league due to the rules, but they end up not showing up half the time. Over the years there have been a few kids on my son’s team who were absolutely obsessed with Baseball. I definitely believe their parents when they say the kids love it. My kid is a good ball player who could probably be very good if he got more reps in like travel players, but he doesn’t have the same drive for Baseball. If he did, I’d probably be one of those parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seems like most of our friends and acquaintances whose kids play travel sports are always saying "They Love It" after describing a three day weekend of driving a total of 800 miles, eating crappy fast food in the car three meals a day and playing in 3 different tournament games. It always sounds very defensive as if they're trying to justify spending a weekend in this fashion.

I know some of these kids might legit love doing this for the love of the game, but how many others are simply being pushed to do all this by their parents? Travel sports seem to be getting completely out of control, and it's hard to believe that so many families are happy to be spending their weekends this way. I feel like parents we've known for years become completely obsessed with these travel leagues once they join, and the sport becomes their life.

Anyone else get this "They Love It" statement from a travel sports parent?

Maybe reflect about why so many of your friends feel the need to defensively justify their behavior to you. Let them do what they want to do.

[Anonymous]

We can afford it. I just don’t want to spend that much time away from my spouse and other child. Once my child made the high school team (and other HS sports too) we stopped travel. The travel parents are not my friends. Family time is my priority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seems like most of our friends and acquaintances whose kids play travel sports are always saying "They Love It" after describing a three day weekend of driving a total of 800 miles, eating crappy fast food in the car three meals a day and playing in 3 different tournament games. It always sounds very defensive as if they're trying to justify spending a weekend in this fashion.

I know some of these kids might legit love doing this for the love of the game, but how many others are simply being pushed to do all this by their parents? Travel sports seem to be getting completely out of control, and it's hard to believe that so many families are happy to be spending their weekends this way. I feel like parents we've known for years become completely obsessed with these travel leagues once they join, and the sport becomes their life.

Anyone else get this "They Love It" statement from a travel sports parent?

It's a mix. But there are a lot more that love it than you think. DD now plays in college and thinks it was all worth it. We had a blast doing it. What else would you be doing on the weekend? Spending it with the kids is great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC’s friend does year round swim team plus a summer team. His mom says the kid is really good at it and he enjoys it. Overheard my DC talking to his friend about it.. friend said ‘i hate it and its not fun at all’. My DC asked him why he does it then. He replied because my parents make me do it.
We know several kids like that. Other ones who burnt out and hate their sport now. Some who went to college for their sport and quit within a year because they hated it so much. So don’t believe when parents say ‘they love it so much’. I am sure some small percentage of kids do love their sport enough to benefit from travel sports experience but majority do not.

I don’t believe this, as someone around a lot of college athletes. Almost none quit after the first year, and the ones that did, it was clearly due to injury.

This is the kind of hyperbole common on DCUM but very unusual in real life.

The number of kids that quit college sports during and after first year is big. For some -- it is the first time they feel they can do what they want. But yes it is a big thing. Probably not football and basketball but almost every other sport.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The ones I know it is more about the socialization for kid & parents. The parents have money so it is nice hotels, nice meals, lots of alcohol for parents.

It’s pretty much this. We can afford it and I’m a middle age parent without much of a social life. I don’t care if my kid plays in college. That’s not the point.

Think of this like a giant sleepover without the hassle of the sleepover. My daughter loves the sport and plays the games and then they all have fun in the indoor pool. Later they meet up somewhere for dinner. I’m at a table in a different part of the restaurant socializing with parents, because is this also my social life and like a mini vacation. It’s a nice hotel and a nice restaurant in a different city. Who cares if we are in a city or in the middle of nowhere. It’s a break from work and normal life.

Yes. She loves it and I love it. But we both love travel and nice hotels.

Why not just have an actual sleep over, or why not just travel to a new city and stay at a nice hotel while doing so? You can do everything you described without being part of the travel sports industrial complex.

[Anonymous]

I would be very curious to know how these travel sport-forcing parents do it.

Having encouraged but not succeeded with sustaining various activities, this does not seem very possible to me after about third grade.

[Anonymous]

We have two kids in travel hockey, a girl and a boy. Both kids love practices, games, tournaments, etc. The kids have made great friends through the sport and we have as well. There is still plenty of time for other things. Neither will play in college (well, possibly the girl) and we recognize that even if they do, the end, like for 99% of hockey players, is still beer league. But it works for us and I believe the shared hobby has help make us a tight family.

We have known families with a child who is not having a good time (or it isn't working for the family) - in those cases, the family has made a change.

What's hard for me to understand is why posters like OP doubt this so much (or care).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC’s friend does year round swim team plus a summer team. His mom says the kid is really good at it and he enjoys it. Overheard my DC talking to his friend about it.. friend said ‘i hate it and its not fun at all’. My DC asked him why he does it then. He replied because my parents make me do it.
We know several kids like that. Other ones who burnt out and hate their sport now. Some who went to college for their sport and quit within a year because they hated it so much. So don’t believe when parents say ‘they love it so much’. I am sure some small percentage of kids do love their sport enough to benefit from travel sports experience but majority do not.

I don’t believe this, as someone around a lot of college athletes. Almost none quit after the first year, and the ones that did, it was clearly due to injury.

This is the kind of hyperbole common on DCUM but very unusual in real life.

The number of kids that quit college sports during and after first year is big. For some -- it is the first time they feel they can do what they want. But yes it is a big thing. Probably not football and basketball but almost every other sport.

That’s not why they quit.

Most quit because they realize that they’re not that good and they don’t want to sit the bench.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The ones I know it is more about the socialization for kid & parents. The parents have money so it is nice hotels, nice meals, lots of alcohol for parents.

It’s pretty much this. We can afford it and I’m a middle age parent without much of a social life. I don’t care if my kid plays in college. That’s not the point.

Think of this like a giant sleepover without the hassle of the sleepover. My daughter loves the sport and plays the games and then they all have fun in the indoor pool. Later they meet up somewhere for dinner. I’m at a table in a different part of the restaurant socializing with parents, because is this also my social life and like a mini vacation. It’s a nice hotel and a nice restaurant in a different city. Who cares if we are in a city or in the middle of nowhere. It’s a break from work and normal life.

Yes. She loves it and I love it. But we both love travel and nice hotels.

Why not just have an actual sleep over, or why not just travel to a new city and stay at a nice hotel while doing so? You can do everything you described without being part of the travel sports industrial complex.

You are quoting me and I’ll answer. We could do that and do. Our other kid has never been involved in travel sports. This one loved sports, volleyball to be specific. So she gets to hang out with 12 friends, playing a sport she loves. Why not let her do that? If it was a financial burden we would stop. She likes to play and we don’t mind it. We like taking turns going and watching. It’s nice to have one on one time with our other kid, which no one has pointed out yet. There travel weekends with one parent gone gives the other time alone with our other teen. When the kids get older (both teens) that one on one time is precious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC’s friend does year round swim team plus a summer team. His mom says the kid is really good at it and he enjoys it. Overheard my DC talking to his friend about it.. friend said ‘i hate it and its not fun at all’. My DC asked him why he does it then. He replied because my parents make me do it.
We know several kids like that. Other ones who burnt out and hate their sport now. Some who went to college for their sport and quit within a year because they hated it so much. So don’t believe when parents say ‘they love it so much’. I am sure some small percentage of kids do love their sport enough to benefit from travel sports experience but majority do not.

I don’t believe this, as someone around a lot of college athletes. Almost none quit after the first year, and the ones that did, it was clearly due to injury.

This is the kind of hyperbole common on DCUM but very unusual in real life.

The number of kids that quit college sports during and after first year is big. For some -- it is the first time they feel they can do what they want. But yes it is a big thing. Probably not football and basketball but almost every other sport.

I’m gonna need to see some hard stats, chief.

[Anonymous]

The only college athletes I know who left after the first year did so because they realized they weren’t good enough to get much play time. I don’t know any good athletes with potential who left.

[Anonymous]

What is with the travel sports hate? If you don’t like it, don’t do it. I don’t send my kids to Kumon or robotics camp but I understand why people do, and I don’t feel the need to demand that they justify their life choices to me.