Freeloading swim team parents suck

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids have played lots of different rec sports. There are on occasion clueless parents who don't understand that kids sports run on parent volunteers. They think they are getting a paid adult soccer or baseball coach for $100/season. Then there are other parents who know things run on volunteers but hope to freeload as much as possible. This is especially true for parents who are used to outsourcing everything. Had a mom two years ago offer to pay $25 to get out of her 5 swim meet volunteer gigs. LOL! No.

To be fair to that mom, every rec sport my kids have participated in has a fee you can pay to not volunteer. It’s usually $30-35. All I’ve ever done is bring snacks and my kids have played every sport I can think of in the area, except swim. DD said she wanted to try it next summer but no way. This thread is one of many reasons.

[Anonymous]

Swim is just more volunteer intensive. Even something like concessions that seems superfluous is a huge funding source.

[Anonymous]

Thank God my kids don't do swim team.

[Anonymous]

Yes concessions are important but takes a lot of work!

Marshall is up there with annoying jobs too. Few adults want to stand there for hours directing traffic or telling people “no.”

But we put our work in. We put more than we need to. Often we are both working all meets but we never don’t have one of us working every meet, including the extras, relay, IM, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t know I would have to volunteer either. I paid my money for my kid to be on the team. Our meets are at night this year and go until gone 9pm. They always ask for timers but I’m hesitant because I don’t want to be stuck there that late. I have to get up for work at 5am so I usually head out when DD is done.

I say this kindly, many many people volunteer and get up at 5 for work.

[Anonymous]

I’d like to modify the title to simply say “freeloading parents suck”. This isn’t specific to swim team … but at the same time, not every parent can (or needs to) be the Hero Volunteer for every single sport or activity that their kids are involved in.

My kids are each in Scouts and 2-3 sports over the course of the year. All are run by volunteers. I get that. For some, I’m the main volunteer organizing everything and begging for volunteers to help with specific events. For others, I show up when I’m asked to. It’s often the same families - so I may lead the Scouts group, and Larla’s mom volunteers at every swim meet, while Larlo’s dad coaches soccer. As long as everyone pitches in somewhere, it’s all good. (Even if they pitch in on something that my own kid isn’t directly involved in!).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t know I would have to volunteer either. I paid my money for my kid to be on the team. Our meets are at night this year and go until gone 9pm. They always ask for timers but I’m hesitant because I don’t want to be stuck there that late. I have to get up for work at 5am so I usually head out when DD is done.

I say this kindly, many many people volunteer and get up at 5 for work.

The other way to think about it is at least in NVSL there are 6 teams per division. That means a grand total of 5 Monday night B meets over the course of a year. You can't tell me at least more than 5 times per year you stay up past 10pm on a weeknight such that this would be a massive hardship.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids swam for years -- in the summers and all through HS and college; the youngest is now a college sophomore and is coaching. DH and I did our share of volunteering. I agree that yes, it's annoying when people don't volunteer. And, yes, some of the volunteer gigs are unnecessary (though they do contribute to making swim team fun). All that said, my kids have wonderful memories of swim team and are grateful not only for our -- relatively small -- volunteer efforts over the years, but for the work of those parents who made the huge commitment of being A reps. So, know that your kids see you and that you're setting an example of how to build community.

This. I swam years ago and my parents volunteered consistently (though neither was ever crazy enough to be Team Rep! 😉). My parents said those were some of their favorite parenting times. And I learned the value of community and the need to contribute to maintain that community. The kids do see you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t know I would have to volunteer either. I paid my money for my kid to be on the team. Our meets are at night this year and go until gone 9pm. They always ask for timers but I’m hesitant because I don’t want to be stuck there that late. I have to get up for work at 5am so I usually head out when DD is done.

I say this kindly, many many people volunteer and get up at 5 for work.

The other way to think about it is at least in NVSL there are 6 teams per division. That means a grand total of 5 Monday night B meets over the course of a year. You can't tell me at least more than 5 times per year you stay up past 10pm on a weeknight such that this would be a massive hardship.

You can have more B meets. In a normal year, we have 2 intra-squad (3 if you include time trials) and 6 with neighboring pools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids have played lots of different rec sports. There are on occasion clueless parents who don't understand that kids sports run on parent volunteers. They think they are getting a paid adult soccer or baseball coach for $100/season. Then there are other parents who know things run on volunteers but hope to freeload as much as possible. This is especially true for parents who are used to outsourcing everything. Had a mom two years ago offer to pay $25 to get out of her 5 swim meet volunteer gigs. LOL! No.

To be fair to that mom, every rec sport my kids have participated in has a fee you can pay to not volunteer. It’s usually $30-35. All I’ve ever done is bring snacks and my kids have played every sport I can think of in the area, except swim. DD said she wanted to try it next summer but no way. This thread is one of many reasons.

I have only seen this for baseball, and it was $50 to opt-out. Fairfax County and have done several different community sports leagues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thank God my kids don't do swim team.

haha Every sport has it's quirks.

I found little league baseball to be just as annoying. On top of the games that were also long (like swim meets), they wanted 3 - 4 hour hour concession stands. No thanks to standing in the hot small stand frying and grilling with a mask on. I happily gave them my volunteer fee and didn't want to earn it back. Our team had 4 dads coaching and that's a lot of work too for them to do game, practices, batting cages, and field prep and clean up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids have played lots of different rec sports. There are on occasion clueless parents who don't understand that kids sports run on parent volunteers. They think they are getting a paid adult soccer or baseball coach for $100/season. Then there are other parents who know things run on volunteers but hope to freeload as much as possible. This is especially true for parents who are used to outsourcing everything. Had a mom two years ago offer to pay $25 to get out of her 5 swim meet volunteer gigs. LOL! No.

To be fair to that mom, every rec sport my kids have participated in has a fee you can pay to not volunteer. It’s usually $30-35. All I’ve ever done is bring snacks and my kids have played every sport I can think of in the area, except swim. DD said she wanted to try it next summer but no way. This thread is one of many reasons.

Yes, if you shirk out of volunteering then summer swim is not for your family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids have played lots of different rec sports. There are on occasion clueless parents who don't understand that kids sports run on parent volunteers. They think they are getting a paid adult soccer or baseball coach for $100/season. Then there are other parents who know things run on volunteers but hope to freeload as much as possible. This is especially true for parents who are used to outsourcing everything. Had a mom two years ago offer to pay $25 to get out of her 5 swim meet volunteer gigs. LOL! No.

To be fair to that mom, every rec sport my kids have participated in has a fee you can pay to not volunteer. It’s usually $30-35. All I’ve ever done is bring snacks and my kids have played every sport I can think of in the area, except swim. DD said she wanted to try it next summer but no way. This thread is one of many reasons.

I have only seen this for baseball, and it was $50 to opt-out. Fairfax County and have done several different community sports leagues.

Ours was $100 for baseball. our swim is also $100 but I know some teams charge $150.

I was not motivated to do what baseball wanted me to. You can have the $100!

But I enjoy swim season and happily do these meets and volunteer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’d like to modify the title to simply say “freeloading parents suck”. This isn’t specific to swim team … but at the same time, not every parent can (or needs to) be the Hero Volunteer for every single sport or activity that their kids are involved in.

My kids are each in Scouts and 2-3 sports over the course of the year. All are run by volunteers. I get that. For some, I’m the main volunteer organizing everything and begging for volunteers to help with specific events. For others, I show up when I’m asked to. It’s often the same families - so I may lead the Scouts group, and Larla’s mom volunteers at every swim meet, while Larlo’s dad coaches soccer. As long as everyone pitches in somewhere, it’s all good. (Even if they pitch in on something that my own kid isn’t directly involved in!).

This is my experience as well. One family has a parent that coaches basketball and soccer, but not baseball, etc. No one is expected to be the super volunteer for every activity. Then there are the families who always sign up to play or participate but the parents NEVER volunteer for anything. Everyone knows who those families are. Their kids might get assigned the worst coach or there might just not be room in the Brownie troop, etc.

[Anonymous]

I have only seen opt out fees for baseball and it was $100.

There is a special kind of self-centered parent who signs their kid up for an activity, sees dozens of adult volunteers working the activity and never thinks "Gee, should I be helping out?"