He is a wrestler for the high school and was volunteering his time to help run an all day meet; most of the kids participating were 5th grade or below. When he got home at the end of this long day, he was shaking his head and saying again that it was the craziest thing he had ever seen.
"What was so crazy?" we wondered. "Parents." was his response. Parents provided the crazy in the day.
Parents who:
- yelled their kids
- yelled at the refs
- argued at the refs
- swore at the refs
- swore at their kids
There was also this:
A second grade boy who after losing his championship match said "I suck." His dad said, "Don't say that" (Nice. Good job, dad) Then the kids said it again, "I told you I do, I told you I suck!" To which the dad replied, "I'm gonna beat your a** if you say that again." (Ummm...ok, not nice.)
Then there was the preschool boy who was wrestling, was losing and was saying to his mom through his tears, "I don't want to play anymore". This made Zach and the other guy at the points table feel bad for this little boy. Zach said, "His parents were riding him way too hard. I mean he was 4 or 5."
Zach also overheard one adult ref say that he used to think bears were the scariest animals, but then he met pee wee moms. (Ick)
There were upsides though. He enjoyed the hospitality room. Just kidding, well, not really, he actually did say that. But also, there was the parent who came up to the high schoolers at the points table after the dad yelled at the high school ref about the one point, and said "You guys did a good job at that last match." Nice.
I don't even know how to sum this up. I guess I just wanted to share the observations of a sixteen year old boy who spent the day with a bunch of cute little kids and several ugly parents.
Interesting?! Isn't it? Brad and I have vowed NOT to be these parents when are kids are involved in things like this. We have promised each other that we will lift our kids up, encourage them and help them. Those same parents would sue a coach if they talked to their kids like that and yet they do it every day. I'm glad Zach recognized it, that means he is being raised in a home where this doesn't happen! Nice job, Sheri and Kevin!
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