Freeloading swim team parents suck
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Anonymous
| Something is fundamentally wrong with the structure of this activity when there's this much division and b*tching. |
Anonymous
Love this about the range of volunteer jobs. Our reps always tell us there's something for everyone. I love S&T, hate timing and clerk of course. Have never tried concessions. |
Anonymous
| This thread has provided a week of entertainment at this point. Just saying thanks. - not a swim parent now or ever |
Anonymous
There really is. If parents hate the pressure of timing or S&T they can marshal. If they don't want to stand around in the sun they can do awards which literally involves putting stickers on ribbons. yet, there are still parents who chose to do absolutely nothing at every single meet. |
Anonymous
It’s not the activity that’s the problem. Once more: The required volunteering is advertised upfront. If you don’t like it, don’t enroll your kids. If you enroll your kids, engage in the volunteering. What is wrong is the parent who enrolls and doesn’t help because she’s working, she works, she thinks it doesn’t need 3 timers per lane, the A meet swimmers get all the attention, the b meet swimmers get all the attention, concessions aren’t needed, and whatever else lame excuse she comes up with. |
Anonymous
| I now see why people are always begging me to sign my kids up for swim. They need more parent volunteers! |
Anonymous
Exactly! I posted up thread, but I love being clerk of course. I get to know the kids and other parents, stay busy, and can keep an eye on my kids. Standing or sitting for hours is no good for me physically, but the moving around associated with CoC works well. I'll probably get certified for S&T once all of my kids are swimming, because it sounds interesting and I'm also good at letting kids and parents down easy if I have to DQ them. And I can handle parents who might protest 
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Anonymous
Because the adults (yes that includes the league) have created this bureaucracy around what should be a pretty simple and fun competition and made it such that the only kids who can be involved in it are those kids and families who are willing to sacrifice everything at the altar of the swim team. As previous posters have said, this isn’t the olympics. This isn’t just sports, I’m hard pressed to come up with a single kids activity that parents haven’t organized the joy out of. |
Anonymous
I do Stroke and Turn in NVSL and while I hate DQing a kid, they don't know it's me. I write the slip and talk about it with the ref and then it goes to the table and team ref. There's something wrong with how the team is run if you're ever approached by parents or coaches about your DQ call. Those questions are directed to the ref. After B meets, I will engage with parents of kids I know well to explain why their kid DQed or I'll talk to the coaches to explain exactly what I saw on one of our kids so they can work on fixing it. Most of the time, the coaches see it too and don't question it. |
Anonymous
Which jobs can you do away with an run a valid meet? |
Anonymous
Truth is nobody knows what everyone else does to contribute to the swim team, or to the swim club or to the community at large or what else they have going on in life besides this activity and one little position in one sub-activity. The fact you all can get so uptight about this is pathetic. Many pro-OP's-comments posters have talked about how much they like their volunteer role because they get to meet kids or parents or whatever. Newsflash, some folks are introverts and it's hell to be in those environments. Many of the jobs are the minimum, ergo why does it require so many or the product at all? Marshal--doesn't really require any work but title-wise does serve a purpose Ribbon person--requires dexterity but overall it's an unnecessary activity. Where's my DC's ribbon for scoring the third most points in basketball last night? Tie-dye person--pointless activity and more appropriate for the pool members not for the swim team Pancake breakfast person--same as above Rootbeer float person--same as above Perhaps leave A meets to timing etc and leave B meets to a simply who finished first, second and third in each heat. That doesn't require timers. Why do B meets, which are developmental require timing? People can be placed into heats randomly or swim teams/coaches can make sure to rank/seed their players in advance so the highest ranked players are heated with the other team's highest ranked players. Consolidate time trials across multiple clubs if necessary and hold those at the beginning middle and end of the season if necessary if someone wants to see their progress from the start of the season to the end of the season. Times also could be taken among clubs at their own practices, and, no, that wouldn't require 3 timers either. |
Anonymous
yes, that awful responsibility of taking an hour to volunteer at a meet your kid is swimming in- the horror |
Anonymous
B meets require timing because B meet times determine who swims in A meets. Your time trial strategy creates multiple pool meets which require even more volunteering. Your post makes it seem like swim isn't for you, which is fine. Plenty of kids love summer swim, but it's not for everyone |
Anonymous
Multiple posters have pointed it out but you all keep coming back with “it’s not valid” - they are 10 years old - nothing they do is valid. You must have 3 timers because how will Larlo make all stars if there’s a glitch with the timing on summer swim and if he doesn’t make all stars then he won’t get into Stanford and he’ll be a sign spinner on Rockville Pike. You’d be amazed at how much fun kids have when the adults get out of the way. Summer swim should be the fun swim. You are not alone in this. Check out a pinewood derby with the Scouts one time to also see how grown ups ruin kids stuff. It doesn’t HAVE to be the way it is. You all choose to make it this way either because you are overly invested in your kids, have no other way to make friends or really think you can create someone great through sheer force of will. Grey athletes are born not built. |
Anonymous
in life besides this activity and one little position in one sub-activity. The fact you all can get so uptight about this is pathetic. Many pro-OP's-comments posters have talked about how much they like their volunteer role because they get to meet kids or parents or whatever. Newsflash, some folks are introverts and it's hell to be in those environments. Marshal: made sure masks were on at a mask-mandated pool, no running, kids are walking the right direction, people are quiet for starts. Ribbon: ribbons are not necessary for b meets (they are for A), but it’s an important function. The reason is that the meets have the info on the back that tells the swimmer the date, event snd time so the swimmer can easily know what his last best time was. Did he beat his seed time? Your idea to do 1st-3rd ribbons only won’t work because, as said before, NVSL requires them for a meets, and for b meets, sometimes the first or second place swimmers are swimming for exhibition purposes only so the third place winner actually gets the first place ribbon. As someone else said, how swims happen at b meets can change the line up at the a meet. A kid who swims well on a Monday, may boot another kid off the a meet in a stroke. Without times, we can’t do that. Same thing with strong swimmers having an idea what strokes to pick at divisionals. A strong swimmer might be placed all summer in free and back for A meets but may want to try breast at divisionals. If b meets aren’t timed, the kid has no idea how he could place without the b meet times. Shirts/pancakes/root beer- this is what makes the experience fun for YOUR kid. If your kid doesn’t like it, don’t sign up. My kid played baseball. We all had to bring snacks at the end a few times each month. Did we “need” to? No…but my kid ate the snacks and enjoyed it so I was shopping for snacks because my kid participated. I don’t think the idea is to pare a kid’s activity down to the barebones so it is a 60 minute activity and no extraneous fun added in. For you to suggest things like combining time trials with other teams (so a 2.5 hour meet becomes a 4-6 hour meet) or to have time trials spread over the beg, middle and end of the season (which makes no sense), shows you don’t understand what time trials are for. Timing someone at practice is not the same as at a meet. Is there a stroke a turn judge and timers to ensure the time and form were accurate? I think you would do better with some swim lessons for your kids. Zero volunteering, no obligations when it doesn’t work for tour schedule, no jobs you don’t want or understand, no shorts and food, etc. your kids get pool time. Try that. |