Monday, October 09, 2006
Isn't It Supposed To Be Fun?
Jacob's baseball game tonight was interesting. Our coaches are very insistant that the kids only get five pitches...they get more if they don't swing at the bad ones (however, they don't get walks which I think is stupid). Some of the other teams we've played are a lot more lax when it comes to pitching. Some of the parents tonight counted almost 10 pitches for some kids and when one of our kids got another out at first, they called him safe (even though he was three steps behind the ball). We figured whatever...they're 7. We had been having a really good inning (our previous inning had been 1-2-3) and one of our players knocked everyone on base home...even though he didn't run fast enough to get past first. After our last kid made it home, one of the red coaches decided that one of the kids is out because he didn't touch third. This actually cleared our stands. We were pissed. We were all mumbling things like, "they're 7!" and "does it really matter?" One of the dads on our side says "it's the adult factor. The kids don't care but some of the dads are more worried about their kid winning the game than they are about teaching the kids how to play the game." He's right. And it's just getting worse. All of the teams should be playing with the exact same rules and that's just not how it's being done. I sometimes hate other parents.
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7 comments:
And that is exactly why I never
went into team sports. The pickup
games before school and at lunch
were fun, but put an adult in it
and it goes south in a hurry. I
know that these days kids have
organized activities, but I just
liked to play in the canyons and
stuff around Redlands with a pack
of other kids. Plenty of exercise
and all that, but no adults. Later, swim team and surfing.
I knew you'd jump on this post, Dad! Really, it hasn't been bad until now. With t-ball and blastball, we were all so into how cute the kids looked in their little uniforms that it really didn't matter how they played. Luckily, we've been on teams with coaches who are more interested in teaching the kids the basics of the game and haven't been militant about anything. Some of these other teams are all about the win (we're not supposed to keep score but most of the dads do) and they will go so far as to cheat or enforce some obscure rule to do so. Fortunately, Jacob doesn't feel the pressure and even asked me why the parents were so upset. He just likes to play.
Yup. Kids just like to play.
When the adults bicker, it leaves
the kids standing around wondering
why they're not playing. It seems
that it's something for the
parents to do rather than
something that the kids are doing.
When it's just the kids playing
without adults around, they get
to socialize and everything. Even
the Military School was about kids.
We did everything with minimum
adult supervision. I'd hate to
be going to school in these times.
But Dad, if you leave kids to play by themselves, then the parents are parenting, right? I think that's part of what is wrong with todays kids. That, and they all need a good smack on the ass.
As far as socializing goes...the kids socialize plenty. I don't put the kids in baseball for that. I put them in because they enjoy baseball. Trust me, I'd much rather they didn't play because it's extremely inconvenient for me to take them 4 nights out of the week. Plus, it screws with dinner and since we don't get home until after 8 when Jacob plays, it messes with bedtime too. Unless I already know a parent of someone on one of the boys' team, I don't really talk to the other parents much. Mostly because we are all busy chasing after the younger siblings. Half of the time, I don't even get to watch the game!
It's been the kids choice to play baseball. Daniel didn't want to play last fall so he decided to play soccer. He hated that and decided to go back to baseball. I suggest activities for the kids (Hannah will probably be starting gymnastics when we move) but I certainly don't force them. What's the point in that? But if they like it, I'm going to encourage them and sign them up until they tell me to stop!
OK, I'm playing with my new toy
now. Insight Broadband. I just
want to see if I can get out not.
Good for you, Dad! It works! :)
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