Anonymous wrote:I love these discussions. The cliquey parents try to cast it off as nothing, and the other side does the same in another way by telling you to ignore it. What they're not telling you is how this plays out as they get older, ESPECIALLY girls. You'll see them go from very friendly classmates to not speaking at all due to how things are portrayed to them surrounding soccer. If you progress into travel and the time that takes away from you, not having those relationships with those parents turns into some awkward trips. Party invites start getting weird and all. It's almost as if the parents subconsciously reenact their own ms/hs days.
Continue to be cordial, but also don't full on ignore everything. You'd be amazed at the topics that go on.
Anonymous wrote:Looking forward to the older ages when we don't need a TM.
Anonymous wrote:This kind of behaviour doesn't/wouldn't bother me. It would be a relief to not have to hear drama so it would only bother me if they were close enough for me to not unwind.
I'd play on my phone, mend or do handstitching, read magazines/whatever if I didn't want to watch my kid. But I wouldn't feel the need to chat with other females.
Anonymous wrote:Looking forward to the older ages when we don't need a TM.
Anonymous wrote:Here's how mom cliques work on soccer teams.
When kids are young being cliquey helps the harpies to make sure they're in chage of things like the bench or a sun/rain popup or the first aid kit. Usually the team mom is one of this group because she'll have info straight from the coach about who your playing, if practice location changes, etc first. If your coach is corrupt they'll identify to clique moms and offer to just give their kids private lessons. This is near impossible for overly involved moms to resist. They get to do something other parents on the team aren't. Which they can use to exclude other kids. The more they pay the more their kid plays and the parents have more control of the team. This all sounds great when it first starts happening. But if they stop paying their kid doesnt play so now theyre stuck giving the coach money over and over again. In the end a new coach will take over the team and cut the kid who's parents bought the previous coach a new car with privates.
In general cliques dont last more than a season or two. Even awful cliquey people cant stand other awful cliquey people after a while. Also if one of the cliques kids starts to suck (not start) they will exclude that mom from the group. Its always fun watching the harpies eat their own.
When your kid gets older or they get onto a better team where results are all that matters the cliques stop. This is because theres no advantage coaches will likely communicate to the entire team via teamsnap. They wont have a single parent (usually the team mom) be the one speaking with other parents. They know that this pisses people off and they want the option to cut even the team moms kid.