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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]the hiding in the cars thing is pathetic[/quote]

It seems like something only a deeply burned out parent would do. One who is probably asked to do 10,000 “extra” things and the scoreboard is one too many (they probably need to take a work call or write five emails during the game).  They got their kid to the game, that has to be enough. [/quote]

Do you not think the person doing the asking also has work calls, five emails (some about the league!), and 10,000 extra things to do?

Volunteers don't magically have more bandwidth than everyone else. They just make room.[/quote]

Magically? No. But they have time to volunteer and they have proactively decided to volunteer at [b]that[/b] time.

The person you’re mad at not running the scoreboard? How do you know she didn’t just come from (volunteer) coaching swimming? How do you know the emails she needs to do during the game aren’t themselves volunteer work? If you choose to volunteer for soccer that’s great, you don’t get to choose it for everyone else. 
[/quote]

OK, if you don't want to volunteer for soccer and the league is about to fold, then you can find a new soccer league I guess. These things don't magically run themselves and if nobody wants to help that's cool - it'll be pay-to-play on the pre-academy U6 team if you want to learn to dribble a soccer ball. Sorry if you can't afford that or didn't want your 5 year old at 2 practices a week. Nobody cared enough to keep rec going.[/quote]

Ok, so you guilt the mom out of the car. She runs your scoreboard, and doesn’t do whatever she needed to do after coaching swimming.  Now it’s next summer and she drops coaching swimming because she’s fried. That’s fine because at least there is soccer? Or is what she chose to use her time for as valuable as what you chose to use your time for— no summer swim team for your kid at your pool isn’t less of a tragedy than no Rec soccer. [/quote]

Be real. The parents who hide outside or "on the phone" and then sneak in once the game has begun are NEVER the parent who also
runs the swim team. Its the same parents helping out with all the different sports and the same parents not helping out (some for legit reasons, some are just selfish and lazy).[/quote]

It’s really insular to assume you know every activity her kid is in and that yours shares it. Ok maybe you swim at the same pool but do you do every other activity with every parent who isn’t score keeping for you?

Going into this with the presumption that nothing a parent is doing could POSSIBLY be as important as score keeping basketball is rude and entitled. Whatever they’re doing may benefit your kid— or not— but it’s not up to you to prioritize their time, especially if you’re not willing to say up front “each family needs to score keep for x games”[/quote]

Everyone knows its the same parents who volunteer for multiple activities. You see the same parents helping out across multiple activities in your community. In pp's example, the same people ducking out on their swim team hours are the same people hiding in their car or pretending to be on the phone.
 [/quote]

I don’t think “everyone knows” that at all. I think a lot of people make presumptions about other people’s time and efforts, often in an attempt to make themselves seem noble and self sacrificing. It is certainly true that there’s highly visible people repeat-volunteering in lots of areas. It’s also true that the person spending their time not score keeping at the basketball game may be doing something more consequential— and less visible— than you realize.[/quote]

NP-Its not glamorous, or saving the world from terrorists, but its a drudge job that someone has to do for the activity to happen that people signed their kids up to do. Basketball is tough because its rec, so parents aren't super into the sport, and you need two parent volunteers per game. Each team has 7 kids show up. One on each team is the coach's kid and obviously, the coaches are busy coaching. That leaves 12 families from which to find 2 volunteers. But, someone chasing a toddler can't do it. Someone who doesn't speak a word of English can't do it. Two kids were dropped off with no parent in sight. etc. The pool of possible contributors get small quick. [/quote]

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