What do travel sports obsessed parents do after the youngest kid goes off to college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP struck a nerve by posting the question on this forum instead of, say, the relationship forum. This is a forum for sports enthusiasts. Some on it are obsessed with their kids’ sports and are going to get defensive.

Oh come on. Surely you can see just how weird OPs question is. I can and I am not the target.

If I’m asked “who would you want to hang out with, OP or the people she is writing about?” the answer will never be OP. OP seems absolutely antisocial and weird.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Travel parents really vary. I have 2 on travel teams and consider the whole thing a nuisance- but a necessary evil if a kid wants to play their sport in high school. Neither of mine has any chance to play or desire to play in college. Just high school. We aren’t “into it” as parents at all- often don’t even attend in town games, & we take turns taking them to out of town tournaments. We are polite to the other parents and make an appearance at “social stuff” once in awhile and don’t stay long. We have other kids and other things to do. I’d say 1/3 to 1/2 of the other parents are like us.

The rest- yes- are obsessed and make it into their family lifestyle and the center of their social world. Whole family attends every game and tournament, lots of parent socialization, usually a ton of drinking etc. I find it a bit unhealthy TBH (and often feel really sorry for the siblings of the players- maybe they’d like to do something else once in awhile?? ) but to each their own. I would imagine the parents in this group will have a hard time transition after travel sports end, yes.

Shorter version: “I’m not like those other moms. I’m a cool mom!!”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The pissy responses to this post are interesting to me. Why so defensive. It’s a legitimate question framed fine.

Eh, I’m not OPs target here and yet she comes across to me as the kind of person who desperately compares herself to others and hates families that seem happy. We all know the type and avoid them as they’re miserable people. It’s sports today but guarantee OP dislikes any family that seems to have tight bonds. People are reacting to that.

[Anonymous]

Youngest is a college freshman. Spouse is thrilled to have weekends back, I miss the kid events.

We sleep in, have lots more naked time, go to concerts and theater, dp some hiking. And, we've each taken up a new hobby: spouse is painting and I am learning piano

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Travel parents really vary. I have 2 on travel teams and consider the whole thing a nuisance- but a necessary evil if a kid wants to play their sport in high school. Neither of mine has any chance to play or desire to play in college. Just high school. We aren’t “into it” as parents at all- often don’t even attend in town games, & we take turns taking them to out of town tournaments. We are polite to the other parents and make an appearance at “social stuff” once in awhile and don’t stay long. We have other kids and other things to do. I’d say 1/3 to 1/2 of the other parents are like us.

The rest- yes- are obsessed and make it into their family lifestyle and the center of their social world. Whole family attends every game and tournament, lots of parent socialization, usually a ton of drinking etc. I find it a bit unhealthy TBH (and often feel really sorry for the siblings of the players- maybe they’d like to do something else once in awhile?? ) but to each their own. I would imagine the parents in this group will have a hard time transition after travel sports end, yes.

Shorter version: “I’m not like those other moms. I’m a cool mom!!”

lol.

[Anonymous]

Transferred to watching pro or college soccer on tv. Also go visit kids who play club at college once a semester and see 1-2 games over the weekend, or meet them at a local school they play against for an away game and take them to lunch. It’s great to see them play again a few times a year.

[Anonymous]

we started going to a bar every friday night.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The pissy responses to this post are interesting to me. Why so defensive. It’s a legitimate question framed fine.

Eh, I’m not OPs target here and yet she comes across to me as the kind of person who desperately compares herself to others and hates families that seem happy. We all know the type and avoid them as they’re miserable people. It’s sports today but guarantee OP dislikes any family that seems to have tight bonds. People are reacting to that.

DP

This is how I see the OP. Meh, she can be miserable if it makes her happy, lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Travel parents really vary. I have 2 on travel teams and consider the whole thing a nuisance- but a necessary evil if a kid wants to play their sport in high school. Neither of mine has any chance to play or desire to play in college. Just high school. We aren’t “into it” as parents at all- often don’t even attend in town games, & we take turns taking them to out of town tournaments. We are polite to the other parents and make an appearance at “social stuff” once in awhile and don’t stay long. We have other kids and other things to do. I’d say 1/3 to 1/2 of the other parents are like us.

The rest- yes- are obsessed and make it into their family lifestyle and the center of their social world. Whole family attends every game and tournament, lots of parent socialization, usually a ton of drinking etc. I find it a bit unhealthy TBH (and often feel really sorry for the siblings of the players- maybe they’d like to do something else once in awhile?? ) but to each their own. I would imagine the parents in this group will have a hard time transition after travel sports end, yes.

Yes. Some people are really into it. A lot of partying and drinking with other families and I also feel bad for the siblings or sometimes I’ve seen it’s always one parent with the kid who is very enmeshed and then sibling and other parents are just home a lot.

I hated it and couldn’t wait for it to end. So no hard time transitioning for me.

What sport is this? We never partied with other parents on our kids’ teams. Just chatted on the sidelines or in the hotel at tournaments. Also, I’ve never heard of whole families (including other siblings) going to tournaments. At most, one parent would go.

[Anonymous]

Our middle child was the one who participated in travel sports until he graduated from high school. He is now playing his sport in college and we do go to his games. But his season only lasts about 10 weeks - not the 9 months when he was in the thick of it. We had a couple of years to transition off the travel sports until our youngest went off to college. It was great - we could sleep in on the weekends; I was not driving him to and from practice most nights of the week; we were able to do non-sports activities on the weekends like going to see a movie, going to festivals, returning to church. We still had our youngest at home so we still had his school activities. Our youngest started college this fall and we are struggling a little with the transition to being empty nesters. The positives - we never have to consult a calendar and we are able to schedule anything we want to do like going out to dinner in the middle of the week; seeing a movie; meeting friends, etc. In some ways our life has gone back to what it was like when we were newlyweds. But we are 27 years older and I just don't have the energy I used to have. So most weeknights we are just watching mindless TV waiting to go to sleep. We need a hobby.

[Anonymous]

They buy a place in Florida and move the party there

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Travel parents really vary. I have 2 on travel teams and consider the whole thing a nuisance- but a necessary evil if a kid wants to play their sport in high school. Neither of mine has any chance to play or desire to play in college. Just high school. We aren’t “into it” as parents at all- often don’t even attend in town games, & we take turns taking them to out of town tournaments. We are polite to the other parents and make an appearance at “social stuff” once in awhile and don’t stay long. We have other kids and other things to do. I’d say 1/3 to 1/2 of the other parents are like us.

The rest- yes- are obsessed and make it into their family lifestyle and the center of their social world. Whole family attends every game and tournament, lots of parent socialization, usually a ton of drinking etc. I find it a bit unhealthy TBH (and often feel really sorry for the siblings of the players- maybe they’d like to do something else once in awhile?? ) but to each their own. I would imagine the parents in this group will have a hard time transition after travel sports end, yes.

Yes. Some people are really into it. A lot of partying and drinking with other families and I also feel bad for the siblings or sometimes I’ve seen it’s always one parent with the kid who is very enmeshed and then sibling and other parents are just home a lot.

I hated it and couldn’t wait for it to end. So no hard time transitioning for me.

What sport is this? We never partied with other parents on our kids’ teams. Just chatted on the sidelines or in the hotel at tournaments. Also, I’ve never heard of whole families (including other siblings) going to tournaments. At most, one parent would go.

Basketball I experienced parents hitting the bar together.

I have also stayed in hotels (just as a guest) with hockey and lacrosse teams and seen parents in the lobby drinking at night ignoring the fact that their children are terrorizing the hotel and/or hotel grounds. I think this is pretty common.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The pissy responses to this post are interesting to me. Why so defensive. It’s a legitimate question framed fine.

Eh, I’m not OPs target here and yet she comes across to me as the kind of person who desperately compares herself to others and hates families that seem happy. We all know the type and avoid them as they’re miserable people. It’s sports today but guarantee OP dislikes any family that seems to have tight bonds. People are reacting to that.

DP

This is how I see the OP. Meh, she can be miserable if it makes her happy, lol.

Yeah, her question isn’t one a happy person asks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son is a D1 athlete so we travel all of Spring to see him play.

But I learned to play piano, hike, play pickleball, do yoga, paint, steam a ton.

I also travel every other weekend to visit siblings, roommate from college, go to friends beach houses/lake house, travel for weddings (3 this year)

I did a 3 week cross country trip over the summer with a friend from HS.

I also work full time and volunteer mentoring people to interview for jobs.

Steam what??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The pissy responses to this post are interesting to me. Why so defensive. It’s a legitimate question framed fine.

Eh, I’m not OPs target here and yet she comes across to me as the kind of person who desperately compares herself to others and hates families that seem happy. We all know the type and avoid them as they’re miserable people. It’s sports today but guarantee OP dislikes any family that seems to have tight bonds. People are reacting to that.

You’re projecting.