OVER THE "TOP" PARENTS

[Letsgetreal]

How many of you have experienced the over the top parent(s) in fastpitch softball? The parent that thinks their kid is the next Fernandez or Finch ... when their kid is 10 years old. The parent that thinks their kid is so special, that they walk on water. The parent that thinks softball ( or any other sport for that matter ) is more important than everything else in life. The parent that makes their kid play the sport(s) because they live thru their kid ... because they never had the glory in sports that they wanted. How about the parent that wants their kid to get that all important scholarship ... so they can brag about it? For me, the worst is the parent that forces their kid to play when it is obvious they don't want to play anymore. What about you guys?

[Joe]

Over the top parents???

Welcome to Heybucket!

[3Bsnag]

Quit stalking me.

Seriously, I have yet to meet a parent that didn't start out that way. Luckily, we grow out of it. We see other kids out-hustle, out-hit, out-throw, and out-play ours eventually and realize that although she may be good, there's always someone better.

Now if we could get that mom to quit screaming at the top of her lungs during games, I'd be good. She doesn't say anything, it's just a loud scream. Screeeech!

[weekend4trvl]

How many of you have experienced the over the top parent(s) in fastpitch softball? The parent that thinks their kid is the next Fernandez or Finch ... when their kid is 10 years old. The parent that thinks their kid is so special, that they walk on water. The parent that thinks softball ( or any other sport for that matter ) is more important than everything else in life. The parent that makes their kid play the sport(s) because they live thru their kid ... because they never had the glory in sports that they wanted. How about the parent that wants their kid to get that all important scholarship ... so they can brag about it? For me, the worst is the parent that forces their kid to play when it is obvious they don't want to play anymore. What about you guys?

That would be all of us and a good % of us are the OTP parents.

[Tucson]

Most of us though, "get over ourselves" rather quickly. But there are some parents that never do. I just think that they are leading a really miserable life.

[greenandblue]

Tolerating "over the top parents" has been quite tiring over the years, but now it feels good to hear the mother tell everyone that their DD superstar has offers from 3 schools and hasn't picked one yet, while the DD is telling her friends she has no interest in playing in college. When I think of the tens of thousands of dollars they spent on her throughout the years, I can't help but smile.

[artomatic]

Oh, I thought you meant this:

[pitchslap]

"the worst is the parent that forces their kid to play when it is obvious they don't want to play anymore".

This is what I'm struggling with now.
My 16 year old still plays HS ball but has stopped TB. I didn't resist a bit when she first hinted at stopping because I didn't want to be one of "those parents" but more importantly, I didn't want our relationship to suffer. I know pushing her to do something she doesn't want to do is not healthy but, the extra time she now has for "My Space" and texting is not doing her any favors either. Fortunately, she's in good condition and the lack of training hasn't affected her too much but, I can see how that also could be an issue with some.
Now my 13 year old is starting to resist. She loves to play (she pitches), but is not too happy about practice. Especially the early ones. I think I want to handle this differently than I did with the older one but, I just don't know how to go about it.
I guess my question to the more experienced parents here is... How much nudging is OK?

[jofus]

You know the parents I dislike even more?

The ones that have kids that have great potential, but don't encourage them at all, or, even worse yet, the ones that have kids that want to play (both kids with potential and kids that will never be great) and don't even allow them to play sports for some stupid reason. Maybe they didn't play sports growing up, so they just don't understand what a great influence they can be on young kids. Or, maybe they don't want to be bothered with having to commit the time and effort to let their kids play. Maybe taking their kids to practice gets in the way of their golfing, or fishing, or shopping, or drinking, or screwing around with the neighbor, or whatever.

Regardless, I hate to see kids that want to play not get the chance. I would much rather listen to a parent tell me how great their 10 year old is going to be than listen to a kid tell me that they wish they could play, but their parents won't let them.


My brother and I played every sport coming and going growing up...football, basketball, baseball, track and field, all with our mom's support. She was a single parent, but she still took us to every practice, went to every game, etc. But, it was different then (at least in rural WV), there was only one sport at a time pretty much, and travel ball was unheard of.

So, now, my 13 year old DD plays volleyball and travel softball 8 or 9 months out of the year. My 10 year old son plays baseball, basketball, football, and also travel soccer (year round....indoor soccer is great, btw). Lots of times, my wife and I are both on the road in different directions, one of us with the 2 year old baby along for the ride. My mom told me a while back "You know, you guys spend all of your time and a lot of money on that stuff". I said "Yep...and I can't think of anything better to spend my time and money on than my kids doing stuff they want to do"

Sorry that was so long, I meant for it to be a short post when I started

[Tucson]

As the kids got into HS, we had a rule - stay in one sport or get a job. If the job didn't work out, I didn't see any reason for them to have a car.

My oldest son, worked his soph and junior year and then asked the baseball coach to take him back.