Anonymous
Post 05/16/2026 18:53     Subject: What age did you stop staying for kids practices?
Anonymous wrote:Why leave? It's fun chatting with the other parents.


Not if you're an introvert!
Anonymous
Post 05/16/2026 18:10     Subject: What age did you stop staying for kids practices?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I never left my kids for practice. The coach was there to coach, not to be an unpaid babysitter.



Please tell me your kid never played, say, school sports then. I guess since you said "unpaid," then no.


If you don't see the difference between high school sports teams and 5 year olds, there's no point having a conversation with you.


What about 7 year olds? 9 year olds? 11 year olds?

At what age do you stop hovering?


These sports groups are ripe for abuse with no oversight.


I have never seen a sports practice where there isn’t at least one other adult coach with their team very close by. And chances are at least a few parents are hanging around near the field for one reason or another, whether it be to chat with other parents, exercise, or just enjoy being outside.

And if you’re talking about a coach yelling at the kids or being verbally abusive in some way? Guess what, that happens even with lots of adults observing the situation. Sometimes the parents are well aware and keep their kid on the team because it’s winning.
Anonymous
Post 05/16/2026 07:35     Subject: What age did you stop staying for kids practices?
Anonymous wrote:Why leave? It's fun chatting with the other parents.


This gets old fast as you have other kids you need to drive, practices are more frequent and later and you are tired after work.

The answer is that it depends on the kid, your schedule and the carpool. We stayed with DS a lot longer because of fear of behavior, anxiety (his and ours) and sometimes DH was one of the coaches.

By the time younger DD started playing, we had an older son we also had to drive and were juggling schedules and our work schedules and who could get them to all of these practices. We carpooled for her early, even with car seats. We stayed if it was too far to drive home or if there was nowhere close to run errands/work while the practice was going on.

Anonymous
Post 05/15/2026 08:41     Subject: What age did you stop staying for kids practices?
Anonymous wrote:Why leave? It's fun chatting with the other parents.


Lol. YMMV.
Anonymous
Post 05/15/2026 07:30     Subject: What age did you stop staying for kids practices?
Why leave? It's fun chatting with the other parents.