Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bragging rights primarily.
We do rec ( kid in MS) and 3 girls on our U14 team have come back from travel to rec because the pressure was too much and they couldn’t do other things.

All three of my kids did travel sports and I found it to be the most fun part of parenting. My favorite parts include:

1. One -on -one trips with your kid. If you have multiple kids, you don’t get a lot of individual time. Traveling to tournaments and sharing ahotel room is a great opportunity to build your relationship.

2. Greater insight into you kid’s world. Because tournaments require parents and kids to spend so much time together (Particularly so much downtime) You get to observe their world and a way that you never would ordinarily.

3. Joint project provides opportunities for complex lessons. Your kid’s travel sports career Is sort of a joint project. This provides lots of opportunities for more complex questions like how to be a team mate to someone you’re competing with.

4. Little moments. Over The course of your kids travel career they’ll be tons of moments. And those little moments will be a touchstone Between you and your child forever. Years after my kids stopped playing - We still have our inside jokes about their teams.

There’s lots of other reasons to do travel sports. But be aware that if the goal is athletic excellence travel sports is a very small part of that.

Anonymous wrote:Simply because it is a better experience than recreational soccer: the coaches are much better, the competition is better, and they have more field time and practice time. If our kid wants to play soccer, we will do it right. We don't even tell people we play for a club, and our kid's 529 plan is already fully funded, so none of the crazy stuff people have made up (bragging, scholarships, illusions of grandeur) apply. It's just better soccer and, therefore, a better experience.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Must we have one of these anti sports threads every few weeks? It’s always an attack on sports but never any other extracurriculars that other kids spend tons of time doing.

Some kids just enjoy sports. It’s not about college, or professional opportunities or any other ridiculous social currency for parents. The kids enjoy their sport and want to play with other kids who share the interest.

I was going to answer from the perspective of classical ballet, which isn't a club sport but takes up as much time and money as one. Even as a 2nd grader, kid wanted to be great and be around kids who wanted to be as serious about it as they were. They got annoyed when kids were messing around and could not fathom how someone could just skip class all the time since their performance depended on everyone being present. Kid could have gone to the local dance studio down the street and taken a ballet/jazz/tap combo class once a week but they wanted as much ballet as possible, watched ballet videos in their free time, wrote down every correction after class in a little notebook, constantly practiced at home on their own initiative, dreamed of getting the big roles that older dancers get, asked to do more and more and more. We were happy to pay for the best training we could within our budget and commuting distance. For this kid, ballet was (is still) their passion but I have absolutely no doubt that if they'd been as into soccer or lacrosse with the same intensity, we would have put them in travel as soon as possible and never looked back because that's where the training is.

sounds like your kid is kind of a butt.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm someone who would never do club/travel with my kids so I can't say for sure. But, I think it's for a status symbol or college resume building. Maybe parents are trying to live through their kids.

Since you already say you would never do it and have no experience in it, your negative projection is just an assumption.

For our kids it was, as PP mentioned, that they wanted to play with kids who wanted to play, were competitive, and were committed and didn’t skip games. None of our kids wanted to play in college and we certainly weren’t looking to live our lives through elementary sports.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Must we have one of these anti sports threads every few weeks? It’s always an attack on sports but never any other extracurriculars that other kids spend tons of time doing.

Some kids just enjoy sports. It’s not about college, or professional opportunities or any other ridiculous social currency for parents. The kids enjoy their sport and want to play with other kids who share the interest.

I was going to answer from the perspective of classical ballet, which isn't a club sport but takes up as much time and money as one. Even as a 2nd grader, kid wanted to be great and be around kids who wanted to be as serious about it as they were. They got annoyed when kids were messing around and could not fathom how someone could just skip class all the time since their performance depended on everyone being present. Kid could have gone to the local dance studio down the street and taken a ballet/jazz/tap combo class once a week but they wanted as much ballet as possible, watched ballet videos in their free time, wrote down every correction after class in a little notebook, constantly practiced at home on their own initiative, dreamed of getting the big roles that older dancers get, asked to do more and more and more. We were happy to pay for the best training we could within our budget and commuting distance. For this kid, ballet was (is still) their passion but I have absolutely no doubt that if they'd been as into soccer or lacrosse with the same intensity, we would have put them in travel as soon as possible and never looked back because that's where the training is.

Anonymous wrote:Must we have one of these anti sports threads every few weeks? It’s always an attack on sports but never any other extracurriculars that other kids spend tons of time doing.

Some kids just enjoy sports. It’s not about college, or professional opportunities or any other ridiculous social currency for parents. The kids enjoy their sport and want to play with other kids who share the interest.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At that age, no. But sadly we found that eventually enough leave for club/travel that the only families left in rec are either very flaky or their kids are unathletic or brand new to the sport. That’s no fun for a kid who takes it seriously and has played for 4 years. By middle school we caved because it was killing her love of the sport to play with kids who did not care.

Agree with this 100%. And for soccer, a lot of kids have been playing since they were three. By second grade they are ready to kick it up a notch if they really love it. Having said that, I still know many kids who are really happy in rec soccer at that age.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, the goal is to be around other kids who also want to play and aren't just there for the snacks.

There are kids in club sports who were signed up for it by their parents even though they aren’t all that interested. And parents have been conned into believing it’s a necessity in order to play varsity. It’s not. The naturally athletic kids will be playing varsity sports not the ones who isn’t talented but started at three years old.

For most schools? Probably not. For some? Probably so. This really depends on the school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Must we have one of these anti sports threads every few weeks? It’s always an attack on sports but never any other extracurriculars that other kids spend tons of time doing.

Some kids just enjoy sports. It’s not about college, or professional opportunities or any other ridiculous social currency for parents. The kids enjoy their sport and want to play with other kids who share the interest.

I was going to answer from the perspective of classical ballet, which isn't a club sport but takes up as much time and money as one. Even as a 2nd grader, kid wanted to be great and be around kids who wanted to be as serious about it as they were. They got annoyed when kids were messing around and could not fathom how someone could just skip class all the time since their performance depended on everyone being present. Kid could have gone to the local dance studio down the street and taken a ballet/jazz/tap combo class once a week but they wanted as much ballet as possible, watched ballet videos in their free time, wrote down every correction after class in a little notebook, constantly practiced at home on their own initiative, dreamed of getting the big roles that older dancers get, asked to do more and more and more. We were happy to pay for the best training we could within our budget and commuting distance. For this kid, ballet was (is still) their passion but I have absolutely no doubt that if they'd been as into soccer or lacrosse with the same intensity, we would have put them in travel as soon as possible and never looked back because that's where the training is.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, the goal is to be around other kids who also want to play and aren't just there for the snacks.

There are kids in club sports who were signed up for it by their parents even though they aren’t all that interested. And parents have been conned into believing it’s a necessity in order to play varsity. It’s not. The naturally athletic kids will be playing varsity sports not the ones who isn’t talented but started at three years old.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, the goal is to be around other kids who also want to play and aren't just there for the snacks.

There are kids in club sports who were signed up for it by their parents even though they aren’t all that interested. And parents have been conned into believing it’s a necessity in order to play varsity. It’s not. The naturally athletic kids will be playing varsity sports not the ones who isn’t talented but started at three years old.