Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This has been our first year of a club sport that requires some amount of travel and weekend tournament out of town. My child wanted to play a sport beyond rec and travel was the only real option. It was her idea not ours and we figured a year of playing and practicing year round would certainly show just how much they liked the sport.

I have never understood the assumption with a lot of kids sports, especially when the sport gets to the point of being a major time and lifestyle commitment, that parents are forcing them to do it. I hear this on the swim board when discussion of early morning practice come up. "That is child abuse. I can't believe people force their kids to do that." Believe me if my kid complained or had to be dragged out of bed I certainly would not be pushing them to continue because I sure as hell don't want to be getting up at that hour to drive them.

Same goes for travel sports. They are a huge financial and time commitment. I can't imagine most kids are being forced into them. My kid approached me about paying travel. I am sure some kids are pushed by their parent, but I would bet that is the exception more than the norm.

Because lots of parents, not all, do forve their kids. Can't tell you how many ppl require their kids to play sports. They do it for college and to keep them busy.

Anonymous wrote:This has been our first year of a club sport that requires some amount of travel and weekend tournament out of town. My child wanted to play a sport beyond rec and travel was the only real option. It was her idea not ours and we figured a year of playing and practicing year round would certainly show just how much they liked the sport.

I have never understood the assumption with a lot of kids sports, especially when the sport gets to the point of being a major time and lifestyle commitment, that parents are forcing them to do it. I hear this on the swim board when discussion of early morning practice come up. "That is child abuse. I can't believe people force their kids to do that." Believe me if my kid complained or had to be dragged out of bed I certainly would not be pushing them to continue because I sure as hell don't want to be getting up at that hour to drive them.

Same goes for travel sports. They are a huge financial and time commitment. I can't imagine most kids are being forced into them. My kid approached me about paying travel. I am sure some kids are pushed by their parent, but I would bet that is the exception more than the norm.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This has been our first year of a club sport that requires some amount of travel and weekend tournament out of town. My child wanted to play a sport beyond rec and travel was the only real option. It was her idea not ours and we figured a year of playing and practicing year round would certainly show just how much they liked the sport.

I have never understood the assumption with a lot of kids sports, especially when the sport gets to the point of being a major time and lifestyle commitment, that parents are forcing them to do it. I hear this on the swim board when discussion of early morning practice come up. "That is child abuse. I can't believe people force their kids to do that." Believe me if my kid complained or had to be dragged out of bed I certainly would not be pushing them to continue because I sure as hell don't want to be getting up at that hour to drive them.

Same goes for travel sports. They are a huge financial and time commitment. I can't imagine most kids are being forced into them. My kid approached me about paying travel. I am sure some kids are pushed by their parent, but I would bet that is the exception more than the norm.

I don't really see anyone saying the kid is forced. I get that the kid wants to do it. What many of us are saying is that it's too much of a drain on family time. I'm shocked how many parents are happily spending so much time away from their spouse and other child(ren). I like my spouse and other child too much for that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This has been our first year of a club sport that requires some amount of travel and weekend tournament out of town. My child wanted to play a sport beyond rec and travel was the only real option. It was her idea not ours and we figured a year of playing and practicing year round would certainly show just how much they liked the sport.

I have never understood the assumption with a lot of kids sports, especially when the sport gets to the point of being a major time and lifestyle commitment, that parents are forcing them to do it. I hear this on the swim board when discussion of early morning practice come up. "That is child abuse. I can't believe people force their kids to do that." Believe me if my kid complained or had to be dragged out of bed I certainly would not be pushing them to continue because I sure as hell don't want to be getting up at that hour to drive them.

Same goes for travel sports. They are a huge financial and time commitment. I can't imagine most kids are being forced into them. My kid approached me about paying travel. I am sure some kids are pushed by their parent, but I would bet that is the exception more than the norm.

I don't really see anyone saying the kid is forced. I get that the kid wants to do it. What many of us are saying is that it's too much of a drain on family time. I'm shocked how many parents are happily spending so much time away from their spouse and other child(ren). I like my spouse and other child too much for that.

Anonymous wrote:My children started golf at a very early age. They did a lot of out-of-state golf tournaments at the age of 12. We are wealthy so we can stay in nice hotels and dine at fancy restaurants. Now as young adults, they play golf with me every weekend, and I love every minute of it. We don’t like team sports because of too much politics, and coaches have complete power on who can be starters on the team. YMMV.

Anonymous wrote:This has been our first year of a club sport that requires some amount of travel and weekend tournament out of town. My child wanted to play a sport beyond rec and travel was the only real option. It was her idea not ours and we figured a year of playing and practicing year round would certainly show just how much they liked the sport.

I have never understood the assumption with a lot of kids sports, especially when the sport gets to the point of being a major time and lifestyle commitment, that parents are forcing them to do it. I hear this on the swim board when discussion of early morning practice come up. "That is child abuse. I can't believe people force their kids to do that." Believe me if my kid complained or had to be dragged out of bed I certainly would not be pushing them to continue because I sure as hell don't want to be getting up at that hour to drive them.

Same goes for travel sports. They are a huge financial and time commitment. I can't imagine most kids are being forced into them. My kid approached me about paying travel. I am sure some kids are pushed by their parent, but I would bet that is the exception more than the norm.

Anonymous wrote:My oldest is on a path that requires a lot of stay to play travel at crappy hotels. We travel about 8 weekends a year. We only did it because local play in their sport isn't competitive, and they showed enough potential to keep up on a higher-level team that has to travel to compete. I know some parents love it or do it for themselves, but I hate it. I don't love the other families I have to spend time with on those weekends, and I dislike the impact it has on our younger child and our marriage. If we could do it all over again, we would never have started this sport. Our kid showed potential in lacrosse, and that would have been 100 times more sensible.

Lesson learned. Our youngest does individual sports, and if or when we travel, we do so on our terms and stay where we want.

Anonymous wrote:This has been our first year of a club sport that requires some amount of travel and weekend tournament out of town. My child wanted to play a sport beyond rec and travel was the only real option. It was her idea not ours and we figured a year of playing and practicing year round would certainly show just how much they liked the sport.

I have never understood the assumption with a lot of kids sports, especially when the sport gets to the point of being a major time and lifestyle commitment, that parents are forcing them to do it. I hear this on the swim board when discussion of early morning practice come up. "That is child abuse. I can't believe people force their kids to do that." Believe me if my kid complained or had to be dragged out of bed I certainly would not be pushing them to continue because I sure as hell don't want to be getting up at that hour to drive them.

Same goes for travel sports. They are a huge financial and time commitment. I can't imagine most kids are being forced into them. My kid approached me about paying travel. I am sure some kids are pushed by their parent, but I would bet that is the exception more than the norm.

Anonymous wrote:Seems like most of our friends and acquaintances whose kids play travel sports are always saying "They Love It" after describing a three day weekend of driving a total of 800 miles, eating crappy fast food in the car three meals a day and playing in 3 different tournament games. It always sounds very defensive as if they're trying to justify spending a weekend in this fashion.

I know some of these kids might legit love doing this for the love of the game, but how many others are simply being pushed to do all this by their parents? Travel sports seem to be getting completely out of control, and it's hard to believe that so many families are happy to be spending their weekends this way. I feel like parents we've known for years become completely obsessed with these travel leagues once they join, and the sport becomes their life.

Anyone else get this "They Love It" statement from a travel sports parent?

Anonymous wrote:The only college athletes I know who left after the first year did so because they realized they weren’t good enough to get much play time. I don’t know any good athletes with potential who left.