My Beef with kids' sports...

Flashback about 17 years ago. I made the All-Star team for girls softball. We were practicing and I was playing 2nd baseman. A ball went through my legs. My bad, I should have had my glove down. Then I hear a mom from the bleachers say, "*big sigh* Put her back on the bench where she belongs!" It was her daughter I was competing with by the way. That was my first experience with how ugly parents can be in sports. Well, it was practice and we were going all the way to exotic Elko, Nevada for the play offs, so you can see the cause for her concern.

Fast forward to 2008. We've finally decided to put Aiden in sports. We figured it will help him redirect some of his energy. His team, the Cheetahs, has won their first 2 games and tied their 3rd. So I missed his 4th game due to setting up for Gray's B-day party. It's a good thing I missed it because I would have been duking some Grandma and possibly Aiden's coach. Bret comes home and tells me the Cheetahs lost 7 to nothing to a good team. The most goals scored in any previous game was probably 3 total. Anyhow, Bret tells me some kid's Grandma is over there saying, "This is embarassing. Put your best defenders in!" Well...this is 4-5 year old soccer, most of these kids just learned what a defender even is. Guess his coach, whom I've been pretty impressed with up 'til now told Aiden, "If you're going to be out here playing you need to FOCUS and stop dancing around!" I can kind of get that because Aiden has a hard time focusing. But I've seen coach get a little too into these games. Let's simmer down a bit folks. So I ask you people, what is more embarassing?