Freeloading swim team parents suck

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My favorite volunteers are the A-meet-parent-whose-kids-never-swim-B-meets who sign up first to take timer slots away from B meet parents who then have to take PTO to run the midweek pancake breakfast instead. And then these A meet parents humble-martyr themselves when meeting the other timers "Oh my kid actually isn't even swimming because she is doing the A meet. So, which one of the B meet losers is your kid?"

Does this really happen?! Our team reps take great pains to assure people they don’t need to volunteer in a meet their kid isn’t swimming in, even letting you back out if you signed up for an A meet job but your kid didn’t make it that week. Granted we have a very large team so there should never be an issue with having enough volunteers, but I hate thinking people act that absurd (although deep down I know they do).

I think you’re seeing the very different experiences in big and small teams in these posts

So true! It makes me think though that for our very large team (and other large teams) you can make swim team seem less intimidating/demanding on the parents by being more realistic about the volunteer requirements. Our team requirement is essentially volunteering at 5 meets, but if your kid is strictly a B meet swimmer, we have so many swimmers that really you shouldn’t have to volunteer for more than 2 meets, and because of the lesser requirement it needs to be enforced. If you’re an A meet parent, you are probably a year round family and into swim culture, and you get the benefit of the meets moving much faster and being on the weekend, even if you may have to volunteer more. I would much rather time 2 A meets on Saturday mornings than 1 B meet on a weekday that starts at 5 pm and doesn’t end until 10.

[Anonymous]

We switched pools this year to one in a much higher NVSL division. I’m subsidizing those A meet swimmers financially, and then at busy B meets, I’m told priority goes to A meet swimmers and that my younger kid can’t swim. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth and makes it hard to get excited about volunteering. I say this as someone who held several prominent jobs at our old swim team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't have time to read through 19 pages of this nonsense but I judge the volunteer nazis like OP who deliberately try to make people feel bad. Same person who gets into a tizzy when the volunteers' shirt isn't 100% white cotton or if someone makes a mistake when filling out those unnecessary ribbons. SMD, OP.

Riddle me this, how is a single parent with one kid swimming and two others who aren't because they aren't old enough or don't want to but aren't old enough to be at home by themselves supposed to volunteer for 5 effing swim meets, plus all of the other stupid events such as needing volunteers for tie-dying shirts, or for pancake breakfasts or for the rootbeer floats. It's so much bullshine.

Perhaps at registration allow folks to opt out from volunteering for an additionl $50-$100. Then you could hire the additional help needed to do the meets.

For B meets, why not just one or two timers? It's not important at all and if little Johnny is going to swim in 8 meets he doesn't need 24 different time samples for each stroke to figure out if he's good enough for all stars or whatever else.

Summer swim team is not for the person is this situation then.
The social culture -root beer floats and pancake breakfasts and the other stuff you deem billshine - is what makes it fun for the kids. Versus year round swimming which is a grind.

As someone who does my best to volunteer whenever I can, while working around a full-time job, this attitude makes me sad. As a timer, does it really make my job harder if there's an extra kid in Lane 6 vs that lane being empty, or maybe having one extra heat of freestylers? No? Then why should the kid be barred from joining the team if his parents have a hard time with the volunteer schedule, or don't want to bring him to the extras?

I'm glad our team isn't that clique-y. We welcome all swimmers, regardless of the family situation. Of course we request and encourage volunteering; we have the same needs as every other team. But we would never push a family out or shun a kid if the parents are in a tough spot schedule-wise. I mean, some of the 'freeloader' parents on swim team are really active in PTA or Scouts or other time-consuming activities throughout the year, in which my kids benefit from their volunteer time. Or not ... but the kid should still have an opportunity to participate regardless. I volunteer because I want to make the activity better for all kids, not just the ones from families I deem worthy of it.

The issue becomes it heavily falls on other parents, especially with smaller teams. We only have one ref, so every home meet, my spouse has to ref. He cannot get sick or miss it for any reason and has to rearrange his work schedule around it as no one else will step up. When he's not ref, he's stroke and turn. He doesn't get one meet off, which isn't really fair. And, I'm doing a lot of behind the scenes stuff.

That’s a little much. He’s allowed to get sick. Your husband could set some boundaries and give his availability and stick to it. People are never going to volunteer because they know Frank always does it or that your family will step in. Just say no. Let the cards fall where they may.

He has very good boundaries but the swim meet will not happen without a ref. Its a small team. We will do our part but it sucks when others don't. Its only two months. No one else IS stepping in. You must not get swim as you have to get certified for specific positions.

Cancel one meet and someone will step up.

There is no one else certified. So, we punish our kids and the other kids? Nope.

[Anonymous]

It really is team specific. On a large team, they have many more volunteers for the same slots as a small team. Some reps just automatically assign duties, which makes it easier (you get some say) and others its just a hot mess where you show up and get assigned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't have time to read through 19 pages of this nonsense but I judge the volunteer nazis like OP who deliberately try to make people feel bad. Same person who gets into a tizzy when the volunteers' shirt isn't 100% white cotton or if someone makes a mistake when filling out those unnecessary ribbons. SMD, OP.

Riddle me this, how is a single parent with one kid swimming and two others who aren't because they aren't old enough or don't want to but aren't old enough to be at home by themselves supposed to volunteer for 5 effing swim meets, plus all of the other stupid events such as needing volunteers for tie-dying shirts, or for pancake breakfasts or for the rootbeer floats. It's so much bullshine.

Perhaps at registration allow folks to opt out from volunteering for an additionl $50-$100. Then you could hire the additional help needed to do the meets.

For B meets, why not just one or two timers? It's not important at all and if little Johnny is going to swim in 8 meets he doesn't need 24 different time samples for each stroke to figure out if he's good enough for all stars or whatever else.

Summer swim team is not for the person is this situation then.
The social culture -root beer floats and pancake breakfasts and the other stuff you deem billshine - is what makes it fun for the kids. Versus year round swimming which is a grind.

As someone who does my best to volunteer whenever I can, while working around a full-time job, this attitude makes me sad. As a timer, does it really make my job harder if there's an extra kid in Lane 6 vs that lane being empty, or maybe having one extra heat of freestylers? No? Then why should the kid be barred from joining the team if his parents have a hard time with the volunteer schedule, or don't want to bring him to the extras?

I'm glad our team isn't that clique-y. We welcome all swimmers, regardless of the family situation. Of course we request and encourage volunteering; we have the same needs as every other team. But we would never push a family out or shun a kid if the parents are in a tough spot schedule-wise. I mean, some of the 'freeloader' parents on swim team are really active in PTA or Scouts or other time-consuming activities throughout the year, in which my kids benefit from their volunteer time. Or not ... but the kid should still have an opportunity to participate regardless. I volunteer because I want to make the activity better for all kids, not just the ones from families I deem worthy of it.

The issue becomes it heavily falls on other parents, especially with smaller teams. We only have one ref, so every home meet, my spouse has to ref. He cannot get sick or miss it for any reason and has to rearrange his work schedule around it as no one else will step up. When he's not ref, he's stroke and turn. He doesn't get one meet off, which isn't really fair. And, I'm doing a lot of behind the scenes stuff.

That’s a little much. He’s allowed to get sick. Your husband could set some boundaries and give his availability and stick to it. People are never going to volunteer because they know Frank always does it or that your family will step in. Just say no. Let the cards fall where they may.

He has very good boundaries but the swim meet will not happen without a ref. Its a small team. We will do our part but it sucks when others don't. Its only two months. No one else IS stepping in. You must not get swim as you have to get certified for specific positions.

Cancel one meet and someone will step up.

There is no one else certified. So, we punish our kids and the other kids? Nope.

Missing one meet won’t hurt anyone and might be a wake up call to the adults.

Teaching your kids not to have boundaries? That’s a problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My favorite volunteers are the A-meet-parent-whose-kids-never-swim-B-meets who sign up first to take timer slots away from B meet parents who then have to take PTO to run the midweek pancake breakfast instead. And then these A meet parents humble-martyr themselves when meeting the other timers "Oh my kid actually isn't even swimming because she is doing the A meet. So, which one of the B meet losers is your kid?"

Does this really happen?! Our team reps take great pains to assure people they don’t need to volunteer in a meet their kid isn’t swimming in, even letting you back out if you signed up for an A meet job but your kid didn’t make it that week. Granted we have a very large team so there should never be an issue with having enough volunteers, but I hate thinking people act that absurd (although deep down I know they do).

I have never seen or heard anyone doing this and I’m fairly close with parents in several MCSL divisions as well as parents in the country club league. On our team, jobs are posted- you sign up for the ones you can do, whether it’s the day your child is swimming a meet or not. The parents in the A meets don’t get priority sign up time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We switched pools this year to one in a much higher NVSL division. I’m subsidizing those A meet swimmers financially, and then at busy B meets, I’m told priority goes to A meet swimmers and that my younger kid can’t swim. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth and makes it hard to get excited about volunteering. I say this as someone who held several prominent jobs at our old swim team.

You are not subsidizing A meet swimmers.

Most of the coaching time goes to B meet swimmers. Some A meet swimmers rarely go to practice, if at all.

And the B meets are almost twice as long as A meets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't have time to read through 19 pages of this nonsense but I judge the volunteer nazis like OP who deliberately try to make people feel bad. Same person who gets into a tizzy when the volunteers' shirt isn't 100% white cotton or if someone makes a mistake when filling out those unnecessary ribbons. SMD, OP.

Riddle me this, how is a single parent with one kid swimming and two others who aren't because they aren't old enough or don't want to but aren't old enough to be at home by themselves supposed to volunteer for 5 effing swim meets, plus all of the other stupid events such as needing volunteers for tie-dying shirts, or for pancake breakfasts or for the rootbeer floats. It's so much bullshine.

Perhaps at registration allow folks to opt out from volunteering for an additionl $50-$100. Then you could hire the additional help needed to do the meets.

For B meets, why not just one or two timers? It's not important at all and if little Johnny is going to swim in 8 meets he doesn't need 24 different time samples for each stroke to figure out if he's good enough for all stars or whatever else.

Summer swim team is not for the person is this situation then.
The social culture -root beer floats and pancake breakfasts and the other stuff you deem billshine - is what makes it fun for the kids. Versus year round swimming which is a grind.

As someone who does my best to volunteer whenever I can, while working around a full-time job, this attitude makes me sad. As a timer, does it really make my job harder if there's an extra kid in Lane 6 vs that lane being empty, or maybe having one extra heat of freestylers? No? Then why should the kid be barred from joining the team if his parents have a hard time with the volunteer schedule, or don't want to bring him to the extras?

I'm glad our team isn't that clique-y. We welcome all swimmers, regardless of the family situation. Of course we request and encourage volunteering; we have the same needs as every other team. But we would never push a family out or shun a kid if the parents are in a tough spot schedule-wise. I mean, some of the 'freeloader' parents on swim team are really active in PTA or Scouts or other time-consuming activities throughout the year, in which my kids benefit from their volunteer time. Or not ... but the kid should still have an opportunity to participate regardless. I volunteer because I want to make the activity better for all kids, not just the ones from families I deem worthy of it.

The issue becomes it heavily falls on other parents, especially with smaller teams. We only have one ref, so every home meet, my spouse has to ref. He cannot get sick or miss it for any reason and has to rearrange his work schedule around it as no one else will step up. When he's not ref, he's stroke and turn. He doesn't get one meet off, which isn't really fair. And, I'm doing a lot of behind the scenes stuff.

That’s a little much. He’s allowed to get sick. Your husband could set some boundaries and give his availability and stick to it. People are never going to volunteer because they know Frank always does it or that your family will step in. Just say no. Let the cards fall where they may.

He has very good boundaries but the swim meet will not happen without a ref. Its a small team. We will do our part but it sucks when others don't. Its only two months. No one else IS stepping in. You must not get swim as you have to get certified for specific positions.

Cancel one meet and someone will step up.

There is no one else certified. So, we punish our kids and the other kids? Nope.

Missing one meet won’t hurt anyone and might be a wake up call to the adults.

Teaching your kids not to have boundaries? That’s a problem.

referee spouse- ignore this stupid poster. Of course if your spouse is the referee they have to be a the home meet. Our big team only has one referee as well- I think that is pretty standard. Missing one meet in the summer would be a HUGE deal- and it would be something that no one can do anything about- becoming a referee is not just a matter of clicking a button on a sign up genius. Your teaching your kids that we follow through with our committments, even if it is hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My favorite volunteers are the A-meet-parent-whose-kids-never-swim-B-meets who sign up first to take timer slots away from B meet parents who then have to take PTO to run the midweek pancake breakfast instead. And then these A meet parents humble-martyr themselves when meeting the other timers "Oh my kid actually isn't even swimming because she is doing the A meet. So, which one of the B meet losers is your kid?"

Does this really happen?! Our team reps take great pains to assure people they don’t need to volunteer in a meet their kid isn’t swimming in, even letting you back out if you signed up for an A meet job but your kid didn’t make it that week. Granted we have a very large team so there should never be an issue with having enough volunteers, but I hate thinking people act that absurd (although deep down I know they do).

I have never seen or heard anyone doing this and I’m fairly close with parents in several MCSL divisions as well as parents in the country club league. On our team, jobs are posted- you sign up for the ones you can do, whether it’s the day your child is swimming a meet or not. The parents in the A meets don’t get priority sign up time.

They do if they are the ones who sign up first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't have time to read through 19 pages of this nonsense but I judge the volunteer nazis like OP who deliberately try to make people feel bad. Same person who gets into a tizzy when the volunteers' shirt isn't 100% white cotton or if someone makes a mistake when filling out those unnecessary ribbons. SMD, OP.

Riddle me this, how is a single parent with one kid swimming and two others who aren't because they aren't old enough or don't want to but aren't old enough to be at home by themselves supposed to volunteer for 5 effing swim meets, plus all of the other stupid events such as needing volunteers for tie-dying shirts, or for pancake breakfasts or for the rootbeer floats. It's so much bullshine.

Perhaps at registration allow folks to opt out from volunteering for an additionl $50-$100. Then you could hire the additional help needed to do the meets.

For B meets, why not just one or two timers? It's not important at all and if little Johnny is going to swim in 8 meets he doesn't need 24 different time samples for each stroke to figure out if he's good enough for all stars or whatever else.

Summer swim team is not for the person is this situation then.
The social culture -root beer floats and pancake breakfasts and the other stuff you deem billshine - is what makes it fun for the kids. Versus year round swimming which is a grind.

As someone who does my best to volunteer whenever I can, while working around a full-time job, this attitude makes me sad. As a timer, does it really make my job harder if there's an extra kid in Lane 6 vs that lane being empty, or maybe having one extra heat of freestylers? No? Then why should the kid be barred from joining the team if his parents have a hard time with the volunteer schedule, or don't want to bring him to the extras?

I'm glad our team isn't that clique-y. We welcome all swimmers, regardless of the family situation. Of course we request and encourage volunteering; we have the same needs as every other team. But we would never push a family out or shun a kid if the parents are in a tough spot schedule-wise. I mean, some of the 'freeloader' parents on swim team are really active in PTA or Scouts or other time-consuming activities throughout the year, in which my kids benefit from their volunteer time. Or not ... but the kid should still have an opportunity to participate regardless. I volunteer because I want to make the activity better for all kids, not just the ones from families I deem worthy of it.

The issue becomes it heavily falls on other parents, especially with smaller teams. We only have one ref, so every home meet, my spouse has to ref. He cannot get sick or miss it for any reason and has to rearrange his work schedule around it as no one else will step up. When he's not ref, he's stroke and turn. He doesn't get one meet off, which isn't really fair. And, I'm doing a lot of behind the scenes stuff.

That’s a little much. He’s allowed to get sick. Your husband could set some boundaries and give his availability and stick to it. People are never going to volunteer because they know Frank always does it or that your family will step in. Just say no. Let the cards fall where they may.

He has very good boundaries but the swim meet will not happen without a ref. Its a small team. We will do our part but it sucks when others don't. Its only two months. No one else IS stepping in. You must not get swim as you have to get certified for specific positions.

Cancel one meet and someone will step up.

There is no one else certified. So, we punish our kids and the other kids? Nope.

Missing one meet won’t hurt anyone and might be a wake up call to the adults.

Teaching your kids not to have boundaries? That’s a problem.

referee spouse- ignore this stupid poster. Of course if your spouse is the referee they have to be a the home meet. Our big team only has one referee as well- I think that is pretty standard. Missing one meet in the summer would be a HUGE deal- and it would be something that no one can do anything about- becoming a referee is not just a matter of clicking a button on a sign up genius. Your teaching your kids that we follow through with our committments, even if it is hard.

Missing one meet would not be a huge deal. Is missing one soccer game or one baseball game a huge deal? No. These aren't life and death situations.
I hope you aren't teaching your kids how to spell, because you suck at it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My favorite volunteers are the A-meet-parent-whose-kids-never-swim-B-meets who sign up first to take timer slots away from B meet parents who then have to take PTO to run the midweek pancake breakfast instead. And then these A meet parents humble-martyr themselves when meeting the other timers "Oh my kid actually isn't even swimming because she is doing the A meet. So, which one of the B meet losers is your kid?"

Does this really happen?! Our team reps take great pains to assure people they don’t need to volunteer in a meet their kid isn’t swimming in, even letting you back out if you signed up for an A meet job but your kid didn’t make it that week. Granted we have a very large team so there should never be an issue with having enough volunteers, but I hate thinking people act that absurd (although deep down I know they do).

I have never seen or heard anyone doing this and I’m fairly close with parents in several MCSL divisions as well as parents in the country club league. On our team, jobs are posted- you sign up for the ones you can do, whether it’s the day your child is swimming a meet or not. The parents in the A meets don’t get priority sign up time.

They do if they are the ones who sign up first.

If I was ba strictly A meet parent I would never sign up for B meet jobs because those meets take forever and are on weekday evenings. Why would anyone say you know what, let’s volunteer at a meet my kid is not in, that will be double the length of the meet my kid actually is in, and is on a weekday evening. I feel like that has to be an unusual circumstance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't have time to read through 19 pages of this nonsense but I judge the volunteer nazis like OP who deliberately try to make people feel bad. Same person who gets into a tizzy when the volunteers' shirt isn't 100% white cotton or if someone makes a mistake when filling out those unnecessary ribbons. SMD, OP.

Riddle me this, how is a single parent with one kid swimming and two others who aren't because they aren't old enough or don't want to but aren't old enough to be at home by themselves supposed to volunteer for 5 effing swim meets, plus all of the other stupid events such as needing volunteers for tie-dying shirts, or for pancake breakfasts or for the rootbeer floats. It's so much bullshine.

Perhaps at registration allow folks to opt out from volunteering for an additionl $50-$100. Then you could hire the additional help needed to do the meets.

For B meets, why not just one or two timers? It's not important at all and if little Johnny is going to swim in 8 meets he doesn't need 24 different time samples for each stroke to figure out if he's good enough for all stars or whatever else.

That’s a really easy riddle. You don’t sign your kid up for swim team if you can’t fulfill your volunteer duties. Swim team is optional, remember?

Someone way upthread said exactly this about themselves- their kids do not swim because they can't or won't fulfill their volunteer duties...and she/he got jumped on for that.

Not quite.
She got jumped on because of her bratty comment on superiority. In fact I believe one poster even said she did the right thing by not signing up if she didn’t want to volunteer.

My bratty comment about superiority was because you people are horrible. If I knew that a family didn’t have their kid participate in a sport I was heavily involved in because they couldn’t figure out the volunteer requirement, I would feel terrible. I would NEVER want a kid to be excluded because both parents work night shifts and grandma couldn’t manage being a meet timer. This whole thread is disgusting, tit for tat, judgmental martyrs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't have time to read through 19 pages of this nonsense but I judge the volunteer nazis like OP who deliberately try to make people feel bad. Same person who gets into a tizzy when the volunteers' shirt isn't 100% white cotton or if someone makes a mistake when filling out those unnecessary ribbons. SMD, OP.

Riddle me this, how is a single parent with one kid swimming and two others who aren't because they aren't old enough or don't want to but aren't old enough to be at home by themselves supposed to volunteer for 5 effing swim meets, plus all of the other stupid events such as needing volunteers for tie-dying shirts, or for pancake breakfasts or for the rootbeer floats. It's so much bullshine.

Perhaps at registration allow folks to opt out from volunteering for an additionl $50-$100. Then you could hire the additional help needed to do the meets.

For B meets, why not just one or two timers? It's not important at all and if little Johnny is going to swim in 8 meets he doesn't need 24 different time samples for each stroke to figure out if he's good enough for all stars or whatever else.

That’s a really easy riddle. You don’t sign your kid up for swim team if you can’t fulfill your volunteer duties. Swim team is optional, remember?

Someone way upthread said exactly this about themselves- their kids do not swim because they can't or won't fulfill their volunteer duties...and she/he got jumped on for that.

Not quite.
She got jumped on because of her bratty comment on superiority. In fact I believe one poster even said she did the right thing by not signing up if she didn’t want to volunteer.

My bratty comment about superiority was because you people are horrible. If I knew that a family didn’t have their kid participate in a sport I was heavily involved in because they couldn’t figure out the volunteer requirement, I would feel terrible. I would NEVER want a kid to be excluded because both parents work night shifts and grandma couldn’t manage being a meet timer. This whole thread is disgusting, tit for tat, judgmental martyrs.

🙄 I think most of the frustration from swim families is not the situation you just described. It’s the groups of parents we see at every meet gathered together laughing and chatting through the whole meet who never volunteer. Those parents are freeloaders, and yes they do suck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We switched pools this year to one in a much higher NVSL division. I’m subsidizing those A meet swimmers financially, and then at busy B meets, I’m told priority goes to A meet swimmers and that my younger kid can’t swim. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth and makes it hard to get excited about volunteering. I say this as someone who held several prominent jobs at our old swim team.

Not sure I get this. Are you saying that at B Meets, your kid is not getting the opportunity to swim b/c they are giving lanes to A meet swimmers? And how exactly are you subsidizing the A meet swimmers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't have time to read through 19 pages of this nonsense but I judge the volunteer nazis like OP who deliberately try to make people feel bad. Same person who gets into a tizzy when the volunteers' shirt isn't 100% white cotton or if someone makes a mistake when filling out those unnecessary ribbons. SMD, OP.

Riddle me this, how is a single parent with one kid swimming and two others who aren't because they aren't old enough or don't want to but aren't old enough to be at home by themselves supposed to volunteer for 5 effing swim meets, plus all of the other stupid events such as needing volunteers for tie-dying shirts, or for pancake breakfasts or for the rootbeer floats. It's so much bullshine.

Perhaps at registration allow folks to opt out from volunteering for an additionl $50-$100. Then you could hire the additional help needed to do the meets.

For B meets, why not just one or two timers? It's not important at all and if little Johnny is going to swim in 8 meets he doesn't need 24 different time samples for each stroke to figure out if he's good enough for all stars or whatever else.

That’s a really easy riddle. You don’t sign your kid up for swim team if you can’t fulfill your volunteer duties. Swim team is optional, remember?

Someone way upthread said exactly this about themselves- their kids do not swim because they can't or won't fulfill their volunteer duties...and she/he got jumped on for that.

Not quite.
She got jumped on because of her bratty comment on superiority. In fact I believe one poster even said she did the right thing by not signing up if she didn’t want to volunteer.

My bratty comment about superiority was because you people are horrible. If I knew that a family didn’t have their kid participate in a sport I was heavily involved in because they couldn’t figure out the volunteer requirement, I would feel terrible. I would NEVER want a kid to be excluded because both parents work night shifts and grandma couldn’t manage being a meet timer. This whole thread is disgusting, tit for tat, judgmental martyrs.

🙄 I think most of the frustration from swim families is not the situation you just described. It’s the groups of parents we see at every meet gathered together laughing and chatting through the whole meet who never volunteer. Those parents are freeloaders, and yes they do suck.

+1

The situation above, parents who truly can't volunteer, is the reason our team have always said they don't have required volunteer hours. They don't want a kid to not do swim team because their parents can't volunteer. However, this would big a big exception and not the norm and something I don't think any parents would object to. The situation described above- parents who never volunteer and spend the entre meet socializing is more typical. We have had team reps in the past who would walk up to parents and personally ask them to volunteer.