Which sport do you think breeds the most obnoxious parents and why?

[Anonymous]

Wow.

So, I'm a soccer dad and I have coached my son and continue to coach my daughter on a WAGS/EDP team. She is also playing travel softball. I played baseball through high school.

That's my universe. The bottom line: I very rarely encountered or encounter terrible parents. And I have to say, if the club or team puts up with nonsense, get out. Simple as that. There are so many options and you are (usually) paying too much money to put up with nonsense.

I will say I've encountered some truly awful behavior from soccer parents over the years, but to be fair, I've either played in or coached in hundreds of games over the years, so I'm sure that's more of a numbers game than anything else. I will say I've been pleasantly surprised by the general atmosphere and behavior of travel softball. She/we are new to that world, and I expected more nonsense and so far I've barely seen any. That said, there is definitely more politics in that sport than I'm used to, but that can also be chalked up to being just a parent, as opposed to being a coach. I probably don't see/hear a lot that is going on with soccer, simply because of the location of the benches and the fans.

Oh, that's another thing. A lot of sideline hostility goes away when you separate the fans. It drives me nuts that WAGS doesn't enforce that rule. The times I've seen drama are from normally mild-mannered people mixing it up with opposing fans. So easy to avoid.

[Anonymous]

Parents are vindicative and shitty as hell if one kid dominates.

Brings out the worst.

They'll say evil shit about a boy.

Real winners.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parents are vindicative and shitty as hell if one kid dominates.

Brings out the worst.

They'll say evil shit about a boy.

Real winners.

Don't think I've heard folks saying stuff that "evil". But I and other parents aren't impressed to see a kid in basketball who always hogs the ball, always shooting and never passing, especially in developmental leagues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope, all of you. It's fencing.

I agree. My DD fences and I've never seen such uptight Type A parents. Even the fencers cry and have mini temper tantrums. I am sure it b/c their parents put the pressure on them big time to win, win, win.

I would expect fencing parents to be of the rennaisance faire ilk, not uptight at all. Weird and whimsical, not type A

[Anonymous]

Found this thread while searching for something else! My son, who is in HS now, has played almost every sport there is over the years. The description of lacrosse parents is accurate, in my experience, but I don't find them particularly obnoxious on the whole.

I have found that the most drama and backstabbing actually occurs in travel baseball. I don't know why; I have heard others express the same. I think it's a combination of batting order and the fact that there are so many positions one can play. Parents tend to become fixated on their kid playing one position.

[Anonymous]

Basketball. All seemingly normal parents that I know lose.their.minds over their kids basketball teams. They talk of nothing else during the season. They finally have kids at the "travel" age and it will be a million times worse. It's already started.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Best to worst parents-
Basketball
Football
Hockey
Crew
Lacrosse

In our experience the SES is inversely proportional to this list (basketball families with the lowest SES).

Ok, why crew? My daughter is interested in it and I know nothing about the culture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lacrosse parents tend to be rich so with that might come some of the snootiness.

For the boys that play, often they are the popular, good looking jock types and when they are good, there is often a cockiness to them. HOWEVER I do believe if you have that trifecta in any sport- looks, money and talent you will get that as well. ANY sport.

They are date rapist types.

Or murderers, ala George Huguely V. Basically they are the types who think they are better than everyone else, deserve more and the rules don't apply to them.

I went to Hopkins and I can assure you that mindset is prevalent in the Lax crowd.

I guarantee you football and basketball has more of this type than lacrosse.

[Anonymous]

Lacrosse is exponentially the worst. Why? Because, Lacrosse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am just curious. My son is playing a sport this year that he has never played so its new for us...but I have never seen parents that are so full of themselves,think their kids are greatest, in my life. All the moms are dressed (not all to be fair) extremely well but not necessarily what one thinks of when dressing for a game. The dads all appear to be connected financial types with big egos. I don't want to bash the sport as he is having a ball, and we are so happy to see him having fun but it did get me thinking. My D played tennis so my exposure to competitive sports was limited.

Fastpitch softball.

"At age 10, every kid is Jennie Finch. Every play is life or death. Every parent knows more than every coach or every umpire. Someday, I want to coach a team of players whose parents are all dead." -- Coach Lance Grayden, All-Stars.

[Anonymous]

This thread is absolutely asinine. I've have kids that play club lacrosse on both the guys and boys sides for years and the idea that people get dressed up for lacrosse games is stupid. Most people are in a combination of jeans and t-shirt or work-out type clothes. No one is ever dressed up. Why would anyone get dressed up in order to go to some random park in Howard County, Annapolis, Ocean City, suburban Delaware, or upstate New York? Club lacrosse games and tournaments are not in glamorous destinations aside from the random Vail tournaments some of the middle school teams play in. The idea that there is a lax "scene" where moms get dressed up is totally made-up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lacrosse. Just say it, OP

Travel baseball is far worse, every dad wants to coach and relive his youth through his kid. And I have a kid in club lacrosse as well.

[Anonymous]

This is funny. I would have guessed lacrosse too, except that I have one child in lacrosse and one in soccer.

By far, the lacrosse parents are more friendly, down to earth, encouraging to everyone on the team, and chill.

The soccer parents are a f-ing nightmare. I've seen parents kicked out of games after storming onto the field to yell at the ref/coach. I've seen parents show up with their kids 20 minutes after the game started, and immediately demand that they be subbed in to their preferred position NOW. I've seen parents yell at kids (their own and others) for missing a ball. I've seen parents pull all kinds of strings to form one "good" team in the league that kicks every other team's a**. Did I mention these are 8 year olds in a rec league?

I'm seriously considering pulling my son out of soccer because I'm tired of dealing with the parents. By contrast, the lacrosse team has been a pleasure to hang out with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread is absolutely asinine. I've have kids that play club lacrosse on both the guys and boys sides for years and the idea that people get dressed up for lacrosse games is stupid. Most people are in a combination of jeans and t-shirt or work-out type clothes. No one is ever dressed up. Why would anyone get dressed up in order to go to some random park in Howard County, Annapolis, Ocean City, suburban Delaware, or upstate New York? Club lacrosse games and tournaments are not in glamorous destinations aside from the random Vail tournaments some of the middle school teams play in. The idea that there is a lax "scene" where moms get dressed up is totally made-up.

No it's not. People are always in their chic winter wear for indoor lacrosse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lacrosse. Just say it, OP

Travel baseball is far worse, every dad wants to coach and relive his youth through his kid. And I have a kid in club lacrosse as well.

I am the PP who posted about travel baseball a few posts up. While I agree that the lacrosse parents can be poseurs, I find them comparatively harmless -- perhaps b/c fewer of them are likely to have played lacrosse themselves. It has grown quite a bit in popularity. Also, I', not sure why, but the strikeouts, big hits, and errors in baseball games tend to stand out more in parental memory than what happens during lacrosse.