My kid tried the soccer thing. Where we lived, it was a total immersion, high $$$, high time investment in insanity.
Even he could see how nutz it was. I was overjoyed when he quit.

I dug this little girl when I was younger. She was on a swim team, so guess who went to swim meets?
Dear Lord, I hope my boys choose something else to be active swim meets are awful.

quote:

Originally posted by arfmel:
Damn sure rather have a kid on a swim team than a football team.

I will respectfully disagree with this statement. I have had kids on both swim team (daughter) and football team (son). Both my wife and I agree that our son's football experience (Pop Warner, Junior High, & High School) were infinitely more enjoyable than our daughter's swim team experiences. Our daughter didn't enjoy it herself enough to last more than 3 seasons. She preferred watching her big brother play football! She still is a huge fan of High School & College Football and she (now 25) and her brother (now 28) make plans each fall to go see a big time SEC Matchup. They have been to about half of the 14 stadiums of the SEC universities. Once she walked away from swimming, neither she or the rest of the family have ever gone back to be part of a swim meet in any capacity.

quote:

Originally posted by sig239dlehr:

quote:

Originally posted by arfmel:
Damn sure rather have a kid on a swim team than a football team.

I will respectfully disagree with this statement. I have had kids on both swim team (daughter) and football team (son). Both my wife and I agree that our son's football experience (Pop Warner, Junior High, & High School) were infinitely more enjoyable than our daughter's swim team experiences. Our daughter didn't enjoy it herself enough to last more than 3 seasons. She preferred watching her big brother play football! She still is a huge fan of High School & College Football and she (now 25) and her brother (now 28) make plans each fall to go see a big time SEC Matchup. They have been to about half of the 14 stadiums of the SEC universities. Once she walked away from swimming, neither she or the rest of the family have ever gone back to be part of a swim meet in any capacity.

Rather than parental boredom, I think the focus of that statement is the lack of brain injuries in swimming compared to football. I could be wrong, I don't have any kids, but I think that was the gist of it.

quote:

Originally posted by Kevbo:
I love my children. I love that my children are active

I had almost made it. Children 1 and 2, neither did swim team

When number 3 came along she started down the soccer path traveled by 1 and 2


And somewhere something went wrong. Very. Very wrong


And now I have been sitting on a tennis court since 0530

Between now and when I leave at 1130, 3 will swim in 3 events that will total a minute and a half

Yet I will be here for 5 hours


And these fucking people love this shit. The center of their universe is coming here. I went into the field for a month with less shit than these people lug for their “base camp” (yes they call it that)

I get that I am getting older and am very close to “get off my lawn” status but


THERE IS MORE TO LIFE THAN WHETHER OR NOT YOU GOT THE PREMIER SPOT ON THE TENNIS COURT FOR YOUR TENT

Is this a summer swim team or year round? If it is just summer swim you are getting off easy. My son started off on a summer swim team but wanted to join a year round team. He is 14 years old now and commits four hours a day, six days a week, including travel, going to swim practice. Swim meets are 2-3 day events. At events that his team hosts, parents have to help out every day their kid swims.

I saw a t-shirt at a meet that said "I want my last day before I die to be at a swim meet because they last forever"

[QUOTE]Originally posted by 2000Z-71:
Archery parent and coach here,

Really?? I had no idea.

sorry couldn't resist.

drove by the tiny town middle school last week end.

They had a t-ball game at the diamond,
96 degrees out ( in the shade) and 89 % humidity.

every single parent and grand parent was under an easy up tent with the coolers open and beverages going down .

while the tiny town tots were baking out on the field.

Builds character.

Plus, it's baseball... Every half-inning, one of the teams gets to go rest in the dugout, sitting in the shade with beverages going down. And even among the ones out on the field currently, 90% of them aren't actually having to do anything at any given time.

And with it being tee ball, there isn't even a pitcher, who's the one doing the bulk of the work in a real baseball game.

My oldest (now out of college) did summer swim team from a young age and then swam year round for a while in middle school and high school. My wife pulled the roughest duty in the summer, getting to meets early and staying until 11:00pm or later (I would come after work). That was 6 times a year. I did all of the other meets, champs, etc. I actually got to the point that I enjoyed it and have some wonderful memories of time spent with her that otherwise probably never would have happened. Yes, a pool deck in any weather can be like a chlorinated sauna, but I wouldn’t trade it.

I would imagine swimming and track are more similar in that it is a team effort but individual events.

Going to watch football, soccer, or basketball is to go and watch the team do one event.

Probably more socializing at swimming and track because more of the audience is idle waiting to watch their participant.

Hang in there.

I am lucky in that my biggest "obligation" to any organization with my children is in my role as Assistant Scout Master with my son's Scout troop.

Swimming does seem to take an inordinate amount of time. The "teams" are usually very large and the meets comprise both genders numerous age groups to with all of the individual races, strokes, and distances. I put "team" in quotes because swimming, like golf is really more of an individual sport than a team effort.

Competition pools (unlike other sporting venues) are typically not designed for hundreds of people. Just parking can be bedlam. Finding a spot near the pool is impossible because the swimmers are all there. So you have limited real estate and very involved parents and that seems to breed behavior that strikes many as odd.

My sons were on swim teams from about 8-9 years old through high school graduation, and water polo in high school too. That’s what they wanted to do, and it was the best thing that ever happened to them. They were in terrific shape always, too busy to pick up too many bad habits. They were on several championship teams. The competition was good for them, triumphs, frustrations and all.

One son still holds records at the school 25 years later. One son is playing in a water polo tournament this summer in Paris, at age 45.

It was expensive, time consuming. Those swim meets Friday night, all day Saturday from 6 AM to 10 PM and again on Sunday several times a years were tough, but we did it. There are worse things.

Living in coastal San Diego, you want your kids to be strong swimmers. The health benefits were enormous in oir experience.

Taekwondo , Football , Wrestling , Swimming , Little League baseball . My two boys kept us hopping . It kept them out of trouble for the most part .

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:

quote:

This is something I've noticed among my peers that have children that play sports. These parents refer to themselves as "sports parents". I've witnessed breakdowns recently when the children were vocal about not wanting to participate in a sport anymore. Seems to me that the majority of these sports parents are reliving the childhood they wish they would have had, through their kids. Not to mention big money being spent on sport camps and out of state tournament travel every weekend..year round

Very true. Girls playing tennis around the age of 16 are developing other interests. I have witnessed more than one adolescent teen excoriate their mother on the tennis court and announce their imminent retirement. About that time the Mom and her dreams of Wimbledon evaporate. One mother and her daughter had a shoving match at the Country Club. It can get ugly.

As someone who talks to that very age group all day long for 9 months a year, I can tell you that, more often than not, the impetus to do sports for many girls comes from their parents, not them.

Some do actually enjoy sports, but don't want to be involved as their parents force them to be involved. It is not at all unusual for my kids to not get HOME until 8 or 9 pm after having gotten to school at 8 am, not had any time to have a proper meal, and literally doing homework in the car. Like they go from school to school sports to club sports. Then on weekends they do club sports ALL day long.

I think the only kids who report being universally happy with the sports they do are the horse girls and the ice skater girls (there are relatively few of the latter).

quote:

Originally posted by selogic:
Taekwondo , Football , Wrestling , Swimming , Little League baseball . My two boys kept us hopping . It kept them out of trouble for the most part .

A guy I worked with about 20 years ago had two daughters. He had them enrolled in everything to "keep them out of trouble". Volleyball, dance, you name it. I guess it worked, he never really had any trouble with them. Then the day after he returned from taking the younger one off to college, his wife told him she wanted a divorce.

For me, the OP's story is really the reason I quite shooting IPSC. You spend all damn day at the range but get to spend maybe 10 minutes actually shooting, the rest is spent policing other shooters' brass, pasting targets and standing around with your thumb up your backside waiting for your turn.

Swim meets are parental purgatory.

Both my kids swim year round, we travel the state. I put up with it because it is great exercise. Both my kids regularly swim 1800 meters / 1 mile during practices.

My son also plays baseball mostly year round, fall spring into summer. NOTHING has helped his baseball ability like swimming. The strength and conditioning is outstanding.

The over-immersion of parents into their children's sporting event is a reflection of parents today having more leisure time and expendable income.

What would be the harm of coming to one of your kid's three events?

When my son ran cross country and track, I was prudent in determining what event I'd like to see instead of sitting at the track meeting all day. Or I'd ride my bike to the track meet, watch his event, and then continue on my ride.

quote:

My son also plays baseball mostly year round, fall spring into summer. NOTHING has helped his baseball ability like swimming. The strength and conditioning is outstanding.

When does he swim? My son plays baseball and loves swimming. He's had to give up swimming because of baseball. However, he plays basketball in the winter so no swimming then either.

As for the rest of the thread - these parents that you speak of are in every sport, not just swimming. Swimming has not cornered the market on that.

My daughter swims and my son plays baseball. It's easier to enjoy baseball than it is swimming for sure but what I've found is when you have a good group of friends on the swim team, you start watching their kids as well. That helps quite a bit. Plus, being around friends makes it a fun social event.

This is such and odd thread to me. I was on swim team in Jr High, High School, and College.

My parents never once came to see me swim.

Most of my good friends were on the team and none of their parents ever came that I can recall.

Of course that was a long time ago.

quote:

Originally posted by Shaql:

quote:

My son also plays baseball mostly year round, fall spring into summer. NOTHING has helped his baseball ability like swimming. The strength and conditioning is outstanding.

When does he swim?

Fall baseball is two week day practices tournaments are Sunday only due to kids who play football on Sat.

Fall swim is 2-3 week days occasionally he takes a day off. And he swims Saturdays.

He swims through the winter Fall baseball ends beginning of Nov.

Spring baseball is 2-3 days a week with tournaments on weekends. Usually 2 weekends a month some times 3.

Swim spring is twice a week to stay in shape.

He plays travel ball but plays AAA he could play majors but then couldn't swim.