I would like to say we were prepared for the other parents. Not the normal ones, the crazy ones. I would like to say the litany of articles and media coverage about parents going over the top would have served as adequate notification that I would be dismayed when it came to real life antics. But MiniMac is our only child, and well, we are still JV on certain things. So based on my own actual sequeway into team sports, I would like to share
10 Comments for the parents who like to "coach" from the sidelines:
1. Check the age of your child before you unleash him for his first team. I feel confident you know this age because it was a requirement to put your child on an age specific team. Therefore you know your son is between 4 and 6. Have you met a child between this age before? Of course because you HAVE a child this age. Is this not the same child who changes subjects 20 times in 5 minutes? Is this not the same child who will ask you in the middle of reading a story 'when are we going back to DisneyWorld?' or 'Will you make pancakes tomorrow' other assorted questions that have nothing to do with the story. The answer is yes. Oh believe me, I know more like repeating myself 8 times to a 5 year old than I like being stuck in an elevator but it comes with the territory. It is not in your child's wheelhouse to focus on this game with the precision of a NASA engineer. It is not combine day for the NFL. Act appropriate about your child's bandwidth.
2. Hey Dad who constantly yells at your son to "RUN FASTER" and "YOU CAN NOT RUN IF YOU DO NOT PUMP YOUR ARMS" . I am not sure your son knows how to react when the coach is telling them one thing on the field and you are shouting with all your might on the sidelines. I know most parents shout commentary from the sidelines. We do too. Our comments are more along the lines of "Nice hustle" and "Way to run the ball." Even when we see the need to say "focus" we don't yell it repeatedly. And certainly not to the extent my voice continues to go up in octaves. You know how I know you are overzealous? Because your face is turning bright red and sweat is spewing out of you and it is not from the sweet Georgia sun, honey. You also like to repeat these statements about every 20 seconds. Maybe you should take your child out in the backyard and have a race. I guarantee he will beat your arse from one side of fence to the other. Then perhaps he can yell at you every 20 seconds for an entire hour. PS: You sound like a donkey braying into a microphone.
PS: I get that some of you have realized your sons are not taking to the sport quickly. I am sure that is frustrating to watch someone do something they do not immediately excel in similar to what it would be like to watch you do a push up, learn to use an iPhone or well, parent your child.
3. Hey Dad who I have nicknamed "Coach Critic", I appreciate you want to stand on the sidelines and complain about how you "don't agree with what the coach is doing." You don't agree with what the coach is doing? He is teaching 4-6 year olds the basics of football. Do you want that job? Right. Some minutes it would be easier to ask a cat to sit for the bar exam. And guess what? It is not a hard task to ask the kids to run through cones. These are children that can operate an iPad with swift and deft ability. You don't like it because your son isn't really listening to the coach and therefore is hopping over the cones like Peter Cottontail. Calmly, ask your son to listen, you do it all the time at home.
4. Hey Dads who love to stand on the sidelines playing catch and talking about the "old days". Do you know what is odd? Is that you are throwing the ball as hard as you possibly can at one another. I am surprised you have not yet donned your jersey from high school. Youth Sports is not a euphemism for "Relive your partial glory days". My favorite day is when the Coach, who actually played ball at a big school, asked one of you to toss a ball onto the field and you treated that request like it was the "Test Your Strength and Win the Million Dollar Prize" throw. A throw the coach easily caught and then said, "Thanks for trying to show off." Note he did not say "Thanks for showing off" but rather "Thanks for trying to show off." Translation: You throw like a dandelion. I won't even say you throw like a girl because I am a girl, I have a Father who coached football growing up and well, I can throw a better spiral than you but you don't see my on the sidelines doing high knees and yelling HUT HUT for the fun of it.
5. Hey Mom who marched on the field and told your son if he dropped the ball again you would "pop him in the mouth." WOW is all I can say to you. To your kid I say: Maybe you can live with your grandparents. PS: You can easily outrun your Mom if needed.
6. To the Dad with the worst behaved kid on the field: Do you think it is the coach's job to tell your son to stop hitting, spitting or kicking other kids? Answer: NO. Your answer: WHY OF COURSE. Which is why you literally stand there for an hour when your son acts like a jackass and you do nothing about it. I love that the coach told your son on Sunday that if he did it again, he was sent out of the park. Not off the field, not to time out, out of the park as in "get in your car and scram." Oh, and even more interesting is you will yell at your son for not drinking water during the water break but you won't say a word to him when he spits in another child's face unprovoked. You have parenting down pat.
7. To the grandparents who brought their tiny grandson to practice one day, with 4 of your friends in tow, you are awesome. And I was delighted to watch how delighted you were when you learned your grandson's nickname on the field is "Sweet Feet". That kid has skills and you all were in heaven watching him dart around. And you cheering " Goooo Sweeeet Feeet" was almost as loud and likely more fun than a Georgia game which is really saying something. PS: You made up for the above mentioned.
8. To the woman who told me she couldn't believe that "Little X has two Moms and I don't know what I think about that or if I am really comfortable with it...." in reference to one of the players and his lesbian mothers, well, all I can say is Thank God they didn't conceive you so you don't need to worry about it. The football field is not the location to share your social beliefs on same-sex child-rearing. Especially with me. Oh, is that what people do when they don't understand the sport and yet have to yap about something? Zip it. Good to know you are not teaching your son about football, teamwork or sportsmanship but rather ignorance, intolerance and prejudice.
9. To my favorite Dad, the one who witnessed your child get hit from behind, knocked down and hurt. I was unaware the way to make a child stop crying was to yell approximately 6 inches from your child's face. Wait, did you just call your son a wussy? Oh my, you did. And you meant it. This is a sensitive issue for you. I feel certain your son is not a wussy for getting knocked down from behind and doing a face plant in the dirt. He is only 5 and not Stone Cold Steve Austin. Wussy? Really? I hope he tells your wife. And his grandparents. And we all know that wussy is the less abrasive version of the word P____. So you basically called your son a P____? WOW. That might be the worst thing I have seen to date. And unfortunately, it won't be the last. Welcome to team sports, also known as 'Time filled with delight watching your child while simultaneously being around a few people you don't like at all."
PS: Is it not odd you would basically call your son a P_______? I find it interesting men use this word on another to imply weakness, impairment or frailty. Doesn't this word in fact represent your favorite thing on earth? So in your own weird way when you call a male a P______ you are really saying I WORSHIP YOU or I THINK OF YOU APPROXIMATELY 6000 TIMES PER DAY!!!! Wow, so not only are you an A-hole, but a rather poor communicator as well.
PSS: I think men who don't know how to conduct common interaction with their sons so they resort to caveman tactic of pushing, punching in the arm, and basically calling them a P_____ in some archaic stream of thinking it will 'toughen' them up are not ideal role models. And by "not ideal role models" I specifically mean d-bags.
10. Best piece of advice on read on being a parent of a young person playing sports: At the conclusion of every practice or game, tell them first how much you like watching them play. Don't launch in with your long list of critiques or how you would have handled it differently 25 years ago when you played. It can wait until you get off the field. The first statement should be: I really enjoy watching you play. Amen.
16 comments:
I need to visit the bathroom before I read this, have a feeling I might just pee myself laughing. Sorry if TMI.
This is the post I have been waiting for you to write :)
I remember going to my goddaughter's soccer games and my nephew's hockey games and it was so very hard to keep my mouth shut.
I was not always successful....
But often the worst offenders did not understand the sarcasm which was further evidence of their overall stupidity.
Keep up the good sports-parenting, JMac, and keep those other idiots in check, too. Sometimes, I think sideline parents like that need to hear first hand and in-person some your comments.
I look forward to watching MiniMac between the hedges one day, when I'm too old and tired to throw a remote at the TV, much less a football.
Cheers on #10. My girl'l only 2 1/2, so team sports are a few years off, but perhaps I'll go into it a little better informed now.
Having attended most of my son's soccer, basketball, and lacrosse games from middle school through high school, and now attending my grandsons' soccer and basketball games, I totally agree!
Punky plays soccer. I have 65 million things to say to this, all of them in agreement. But really, I think a good sigh and nod just about cover it.
People are douches. I'm done with people today.
Ooooh I could write a book on some of the horrible crap I have seen from parents on the sidelines. With my father being a Little League coach for many years, all three of my younger brothers playing baseball and my own son playing Little League for over five years, I have seen the worst examples of this behavior. One thing that has surprised me with my son now becoming a competitive swimmer is that I have seen NONE of this uber-competive sideline drama (so far, knock on wood). It has been a huge pleasant surprise and even though there are times when my son misses baseball, he enjoys his new sport so much that he says he will never go back to baseball. Which kind of makes me sad... As much as I tried to shield him from those awful displays of ass-baggery from his teammates' parents, he still saw it and it affected him.
I hope MiniMac (and you and your husband) are able to enjoy the sport and not let pathetic windbags ruin the experience.
I am so glad I grew up in the age of pick-up ball, or no ball. And parents had things to do besides watch the kids at play.
No disrespect to you, JennyMac, doing right by your MiniMac, but you have observed and written it out for us exactly why I feel as I do.
I loved this post, and especially, "Welcome to team sports, also known as 'Time filled with delight watching your child while simultaneously being around a few people you don't like at all." My 9 year old plays ice hockey, and I thought his sport had all of the bad parents. You know that NHL scouts attend youth hockey games, right? I am simultaneously horrified and relieved that bad parents exist in all team sports.
My father realized, much to his derogatory consternation that I was never going to play team sports when as a offensive lineman I kept standing up at the snap and let the opposition through to nail the quarterback. After doing that twice he simply ranted at me for writing, then destroyed my journals when I went to boot camp.
I think it was a fair trade, he proved to me he was an asshole and I proved to him I would never be what he wanted me to be.
Now I am content and so is he as he sleeps in the house of his ancestors.
I know this is SEC country and all but DAMN. I'm encouraging my son to stick with swimming and karate. Team sports down here scare the crap outta me.
Agreed on all points. Too many parents want to live through their kids sports exploits. Get in the game if you want to play.
Can't wait till I have kids in sports!!
Oh my.
I just left my son's baseball game. I witnessed several of these. I should write a post of my own. Some dads (and moms) just need to be throat punched.
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