Anonymous wrote:OP again - appreciate all the answers. I'm Gen X and was not an athlete so some of this is a little hard to relate to. But for those of you who do spend all day every weekend at games - is this how you grew up, too? Your weekends were consumed with sports and your parents were there to watch all of it?

OP, yes. I’m GenX too (female) and I was hugely into competitive soccer growing up, as were my siblings. I have fantastic memories of traveling to Canada, up and down the east coast for travel and state team and winning a HS state championship. I did have tournaments every holiday weekend and games every Sunday.

My dad was a coach and he and my mom were at all of our games. We have crazy stories about the characters/parents/coaches, etc of that time. We still did many other things as a family. I remember going to museums, folk festivals and other cultural things as well with my family.

I love sports and I actually love to watch my kids play. I don’t like crazy parents and I will complain about early games far away, etc, but it’s beem a great experience for my kids. However, if they walked away from it tomorrow, I’d be totally fine. Though physical fitness/exercise is big on our household so they aren’t going to sit in front of electronics/tv.

I think it depends on the family.

My very good friend goes to both her grandsons’ sporting events when she can. Her one daughter (in her 40s) still plays soccer fairly competitively, and they often do that as an outing, and then go for coffee or snacks or whatever after.

OP there are two things I really enjoy about my kids' games:
1) the other parents. They are a great group and we all really enjoy each others' company. It's fun to hang with them.
2) It's really exciting to see your kids perform. And by that I mean, you have nurtured these little people and all of a sudden they can go out there and show you what they have learned, how hard they have worked and what they can do! There aren't a lot of areas of childhood where that is the case. But what happens on the field is owned by those kids. I get teary-eyed seeing how much they have developed and grown, and how hard they work to achieve their goals!

I like going to my kids' soccer games and my nephews' soccer games. I like going to my nephew's flag football games less.

I suspect that if I'm in good health, I might like going to grandkids' games, but maybe not so many? But I think fresh air and being outdoors is good for your parents, so I think overall it's better than sitting at home. Being around young people is also very good for them.

Anonymous wrote:OP again - appreciate all the answers. I'm Gen X and was not an athlete so some of this is a little hard to relate to. But for those of you who do spend all day every weekend at games - is this how you grew up, too? Your weekends were consumed with sports and your parents were there to watch all of it?

Yes and my parents and grandparents went to my games too. I love watching games.

OP again - appreciate all the answers. I'm Gen X and was not an athlete so some of this is a little hard to relate to. But for those of you who do spend all day every weekend at games - is this how you grew up, too? Your weekends were consumed with sports and your parents were there to watch all of it?

My kids are only home 1 and 3 more years. I enjoy watching them have fun in their respective sports, and socializing with parents I have become friends with over a decade+ of cheering for our kids together. Neither will play their sport in college so for me, this is it as far as watching them play. Am I looking forward to them heading off to college, so my DH and I can go back to concerts, theatre and spontaneous trips? Absolutely! But un the meantime, it's called being a parent, and I am enjoying it.

OP, you have no idea how much this pathetic people LIVE for these games. Seriously. They will move mountains to center their lives around the kid's soccer, soft ball, base ball, lacrosse... schedules. It's been one of the hardest things for me to understand as I am a parent and cannot grasp this mindset.

I know people and relatives who are almost offended if you want to do something social with them when it MIGHT conflict with hour 7 of a 9 hour tournament that one of their kids are in.

It's truly pathetic. I often wonder what these people will do when their kids no longer play sports? Will they *gasp* have to get a life?!?

Your job as a parent is to be there for your kid, whether you enjoy watching their activities or not. And yes, some activities are oh-so excruciating to watch. Some are great.

I think it depends a lot on the parents. My son is on a somewhat competitive soccer team and I hate it. I have a strong feeling he won’t go further than this (he is playing 12u) and many of the kids are losing interest. The parents are nuts and really ruin the fun of the game. These kids aren’t going pro, most will not play at the top levels and I will put large sums of money that none will go pro. So - why are we as adults so intense on the performance and outcome of a game? It ruins it for everyone involved.
The short answer is no because of the culture that we have created in kid sports.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's normal when you have kids to enjoy being a part of their life. That includes going to sporting events, scouting meets, plays, performances, school nights, neighborhood friend parties, and kid focused movies and events. Grandparents also enjoy being a part of their grandchild's life.

Also, like a lot of sporting events, it's social. Parents spend quite a bit of time chatting with each other during the game. Presumably your in-laws also talk to one another.

Maybe you can remember being a kid and doing things as a family? I'm not really sure why you would need to crowd source this perspective even if you don't have kids yourself.

This is OP - my parents were very involved with my life as a kid. But I wasn't an athlete and didn't have, like, musical recitals all weekend every weekend. I don't know that they'd have come to that many events - they had lives outside of what I was doing.

I'm crowdsourcing because I am interested in lives outside of my own. Does that make sense to you? I hope so.

Watching the middle to high school sporting events of your kids can be quite fun, especially if you enjoy some of the parents. Watching a ballet or musical recital every weekend would be excruciating to me. The talent is usually not there and you're certainly not socializing. So, to each their own.