I hate myself just a little tonight.

You have sovreignity over how you raise Mo.

You have to allow the same for other parents. Even idiots.

Telling Mo not to allow people to treat him that way is the right thing to do.

Ditto Mame

Don't know you guys real well - but in my opinion - raising kids self esteem is so important and I reckon talking it through with your littleun was the best thing you could have done for him.

I think that maybe had you approached the coach - that it may possible have pulled him up, or it could have made it harder for the little guy he was hollering at.

Just my opinion - but I think you did the right thing. If you feel real strong about it tho - would you not be able to approach the League Folk - sorry, don't know how it all works out there, but he must be answerable to someone. You needn't make too big a thing out of it - just let them know that encouraging children instead of belittling them would get a far better achievement for the team and the more importantly, a happier child who would want to play even better.

OK - rambling now - know from where I work that happy kids, better results! If they are the losing team - well, still got happy encouraged kids!)

K - that's me. Back in my box now.

Ditto to the DrewDad.

No advice boom, but you really struck a chord with me, I need to download if you don't mind.

What you said about not getting the whole sports thing, that's exactly how I am.

My parents had no interest in sports, my brothers didn't either, I guess because the parents didn't. huh, my sisters didn't either.

Never had a conversation about sports at home that I can recall.

This wasn't a problem until I had to interact with other children, which I didn't until I went to school.

All of a sudden I was with all these kids who knew all this stuff I didn't know existed, like softball, basketball, I don't know what all else, I hated and dreaded every moment of it.

I never asked anyone what the rules of any of these games were, because, well, everyone else seemed to know them, and it would just be too retarded to ask.

I had no idea what the object of most of those sports type games were, I was too busy trying to avoid having anyone throw a ball or whatever in my direction.

When the damn thing did come straight at me, and I was forced to pick it up, my primal need was to get rid of it as soon as I could, so I would just flail it out in any direction at all.

As you can imagine, I wasn't picked first when chosing sides.

Anyway, I hated those kids that were good at whatever sport it was, because those were the worst when it came to telling you that you didn't know what you were doing.

No **** sherlock, you don't think I know I suck at this?

What I remember most was standing waaaaaaay out far away in the outfield, or running up and down a basketball court, praying the bell would ring and this stupid **** would be over and wondering what all this was supposed to be good for.

I still haven't figured it out.

What IS supposed to be the big deal?

Well, the big deal is supposed to be learning fair play, team work, and
self-discipline. It is supposed to be kids running around and getting
exercise. It is supposed to be about socialization and shared memories.

And, reasonably often, it is.

But sometimes it ain't. And far too often the reason it ain't is grown-ups.
I coached Nigel's in-town (recreational) league soccer team from his
kindergarten to seventh grade. My league was pretty serious about
keeping the high-strung coaches and parents under control, but I still saw
a lot of stuff I didn't like. I've had to convince a frustrated Dad that
Alex just didn't like it and just to give him some time (Alex was six). I had
to take all kinds of measure to keep a score from ballooning out of
control only to have some Dad say to me "You know, we should be
beating these guys by ten points or more!" We?

But there were many good, sincere -- if technically clueless -- soccer-dad
and soccer-mom coaches who provided a safe, fun, heathy environment
in which the kids could be kids.

yeah chai, i never knew the rules for any sports i played. sorta hilarious actually.

when i would ask what the rules were they wouldnt explain them so i would make my own.

all i could ever do was run the football into the endzone, i cant throw for sheeeeeezy.

Yeah, ditto DrewDad from here.... I guess.

But what if the guy had been hitting the kid? Would that have been the same or different? I think verbal violence is worse than physical violence. Is humiliation violence?

Sadly, the kid did not hit one single ball the whole time we watched so there wasn't a chance to cheer for him. Like I said, he gave up.

All the things George lists are the reasons we signed Mo up for baseball. Mo is a bad loser. We're not the type who let him win at everything but for whatever reason he's a bad loser. We're hoping that playing on a team will help him understand the complexity of effort.... the accomplishment of effort....

... if that makes any sense to anyone but me.

I agree -- and I'm guessing George was one of them.

I hardly played any games, much less sports, until we moved to Chicago when I was nine, and landed in a friendly neighborhood with a lot of girls around my age.

Before that I remember that when we lived in New York City, there was one day when we all lined up to throw a big ball at a hoop way up high. When my turn came, the ball barely lifted, a completely miserable effort, and landed somewhere in some other play area. Ugh.

But, in that chicago neighborhood people told me what to do for the first while and I was okay. Not bad at batting, catching, running, actually. But then we also played baseball in class sometimes, with the nun occasionally taking us to play baseball for an hour instead of have a geography class. I don't remember being afraid, particularly, but I never did hit a line drive during those school games... always struck out.

Then we moved to LA as I turned into a teenager, and people played something called volleyball, and they all knew the rules, which involved whacking a hard ball with your hands or wrist. How stupid was that? and it hurt!! Then I just got stupider, trying to sit out gym classes with the world's longest menstrual periods.

I did grow to like sports as a spectator, did like playing golf (how stupid is that?), eventually tennis, and eventually swimming and some running. Well, to say running is to exaggerate. Used to read books from the library like "Sports Stories of the Year, 1947", not so much for statistics but for the human story part of it.

Still, Boomer's story makes me cringe. I too agree she did the right thing, re not interfering... but can see wanting to fix that boy's life... somehow immediately.

I play football, me vs everyone, and win. every time. Honest.