Parents Vent/rant about munchkins out of control at meets (and gym!)

[lovofu]

My only vent is at practice when parents sitting on one end of the balcony send their boys down to the far end of the balcony to wrestle, throw balls and fight with each other so we can't talk or read and they have their starbucks and chat. OY VEY

 

[mariposa]

My only vent is at practice when parents sitting on one end of the balcony send their boys down to the far end of the balcony to wrestle, throw balls and fight with each other so we can't talk or read and they have their starbucks and chat. OY VEY

Yes, this drives me crazy, too. If I stay at the gym (or am at a meet) I don't want to "babysit" other peoples children while they let them run wild. If you bring your kids to practice or the meet, keep them entertained and keep an eye on them for goodness sake.

 

[cher062]

I have always believed in the fact that ALL family members attend sport or school functions as support. However from early on, my children have been expected to sit, watch, and to be considerate of all others around them. My kids as babies may have 'wailed' but I always took them elsewhere to calm them down. What ussually happened was that they napped during the meet/function, etc. I don't know what it was with my babies, but they slept better with noise than when it was too quite. I guess I was just lucky! My son to this day reminds my oldest, 18 yo, "I went to ALL of your meets. You HAVE to come see me wrestle!" Right he is, at least in my book! Family is an individuals first support group! That is my opinion and belief however. I know it doesn't work for all.

I believe that the family should support each other but I also believe that support doesn't mean they MUST be in attendance at every event even if they really don't want to be there. Being at an event you don't want to be at isn't support but more just taking up space. Lilgymmie you obviously watch your kids and make sure they are under control and behave unfortunatly that isn't usually the case from my experience. I don't think kids should be forced to sit and watch to show support. My son shows support for my daughter but has only been to maybe 3 or 4 meets ever. Now he is older than her by 5 years but even when he was young he made sure she knew he was supporting her and proud of her efforts. They have always gotten along really well.

He wishes her luck, makes little goodluck items for her for almost every meet, she calls him when the meet is over so she can tell him how she did and he will do the "at a girl" support chat, when she comes home he wants the play by play all over again and makes a big deal of anything she won will also give the "you will do better next time" if she did poorly. Lots of family support can be given without actually being at the event. He is very good at letting her know that big brother is very proud of her and supports her efforts.

Some venues just aren't good for the little ones because of the way they set things up. I just don't see how a whole lot of support is happening if kids are running all around not watching or paying attention playing video games watching DVD's on little players while parents are either ignoring them or not watching the meet anyway trying to control them.

I would just say that those that do bring kids you should totally expect to miss part of the meet and your child's performance as you keep your kids from bothering others trying to watch the meet and under control also instead of the up front I want to see my kid areas look for the areas alreday set up that will allow freedom of movement like the snack area in a loft or something like that so others can enjoy the meet too.

 

[my4buffaloes]

for many years we all went to whatever event a child was attending. it was hard, but it was important to us. Now that they get older though, with 4 kids, we would be dragging everyone all over town every single day in order for everyone to be at everything. the kids like to have some downtime at home too. the far away meets especially, when you are talking 2 hours in a car, 4-5 hours at a meet and 2 hours home, holy cow! That is a lot for me to sit through and I am the mom. My kids very much support each other, but we don't have to all go everywhere in order to do it. I guess the more kids you have and the older they get makes it virtually impossible so we had to give that thought up.

 

[2gymmies]

This is a tough one for alot of parents, me included, we have 5 kids and the four oldest all have activities so our toddler has to go somewhere (unless we want to pay some ridiculous amount for a babysitter like everyday). He is one year old so I know he is misbehaving but we do the best we can to entertain him and take him out (and it usually involves a bribe, hee hee). For the most part, I bet the parent is sweating the frustration and embarrassment of the child as much as it drives you nuts! I know I feel like I've run a marathon after having my kids at a gym meet, or a soccer game, or a baseball game or church for that matter, but we feel they won't learn to behave in these situations if they are not exposed to them. Anecdotally, my favorite video of all time is watching the reaction of my two boys (7 and 5 yrs at the time) when they realized their sister got first place at state - they celebrated more than we did and their reaction brought tears to my eyes - it was priceless, even though they didn't want to be there.

Patience is a virtue!

Jules

 

[bookworm]

When I see a kid running around near me out of control, I stop them and say "what's your name" and when they reply (for example) "Johnny" , I then say, "Great Johnny, I just heard your mom calling you to go back and sit with her at her end of the room"

(And before any of the childcare police get after me for asking the kid's name, they shouldn't be running around all alone without a parent nearby to begin with!!)

 

[Bajanswife]

The other day at the gym I was sitting on a bench watching part of DD's practice, and a little sibling was bored and trying to find something to do while her mom just sat there. She spied some things up on a shelf that are used in kindergym, and spend the next 30 minutes climbing up on the bench right next to me to get them down one by one (and bumping me lots in the process). Then they left without putting a single thing back - just left them all there on the edge of the spring floor for the coaches to put away! I could not believe that mother would just walk out without a care in the world about all the things her little DD had pulled down off the shelves! This same little girls was running under the bars the week before, even though the coaches keep saying "don't run under the bars!" to every child who approaches. This kid clunked her head on one of the bars supports as she was running by, and went wailing back to her mom. Then there are kids who won't stay off the parallel bars and pommel horse, no matter how often the coaches tell them to - I end up having to speak to the kids often. It can be so infuriating when the parents who are watching won't supervise their kids properly.

 

[AGM78910]

I should have said that unsupervised kiddos are the problem. Our gym is a multi-sport center and parents who were watching their kids play soccer and baseball sent the little ones over to jump on the trampoline. They ran across the vault track to get to the tramp while the gymmies were vaulting. I managed to head them off and send them back to the parents. We ended up putting up one of those baseball nets to keep them where they belong.

 

[Bella's Mom]

My only vent is at practice when parents sitting on one end of the balcony send their boys down to the far end of the balcony to wrestle, throw balls and fight with each other so we can't talk or read and they have their starbucks and chat. OY VEY

Ooooh.....we have a set of parents who do this. They arm their boys with balls and some type of "rip cord" toy to entertain the kids while they sit and talk. The boys are throwing a ball in a small viewing area. Can you guess how successful this is??? Our viewing area has a bench/cubby combo made of wood. These boys use their rip cord toys and launch them into the small wooden cubbies. LOUD BANG every single time and they do it, three of them, over and over and over until you are ready to commit capital murder.

Last practice, the owner's daughter/L3 coach actually came off of her job, walked over to deal with those kids. The parents looked up and let her handle it!!!!! Now see, if that were me and mine, I'd have been humiliated.

 

[Bella's Mom]

And on a more positive note, I do think that some parents do a great job teaching their kids how to behave appropriately.

We have a mother who brings her teenage daughter in for private tumbling lesson to help with cheer. This poor woman has SEVEN children. Seven. SEEEEVVVVEEEENNNNN. The teenager is the oldest and she brings every single one of those children to the private lesson with her. One child has Down. That child comes too.

Every. Single. One. of those children sit quietly or play quietly in a corner. Every now and then the child with Down will need some extra attention but holy cow, these kids are impressive. Even the little toddler is dang well behaved.

 

[10.0]

Sadly it is not just kids. Everytime we host a meet our gym gets trashed by kids but also by parents! People are so disrespectful! Coffee spilled all over our brand new carpet with no attempt to clean it up (doubt kids are doing that) other spills all over that the parents should clean up. (And we have signs all over saying no food/drink in seating area.) Garbage everywhere, all over the floor, parents pull out the gym equiptment in our preschool gym that we have put away for seating for their kids to play on. Flushing wads of paper towels down the toilet, stealing everything we put out (hand soap, bathroom spray, towels) picking paint off our walls. The list goes on and on and I can't believe what the parents let their kids do, but even more I can't believe what the parents themselves do.

 

[Pickle's Mom]

Normally I am not a fan of using a screen as a babysitter, but I admit that I bought the Cucumber a DSI only to give his something to keep him occupied during Pickle's meets.

There's no way I can really leave him home for every meet. No family nearby, husband works Saturdays, and not a lot of babysitters. Once in awhile it works out to have a playdate, but usually he comes along.

 

[AGM78910]

Sadly it is not just kids. Everytime we host a meet our gym gets trashed by kids but also by parents! People are so disrespectful! Coffee spilled all over our brand new carpet with no attempt to clean it up (doubt kids are doing that) other spills all over that the parents should clean up. (And we have signs all over saying no food/drink in seating area.) Garbage everywhere, all over the floor, parents pull out the gym equiptment in our preschool gym that we have put away for seating for their kids to play on. Flushing wads of paper towels down the toilet, stealing everything we put out (hand soap, bathroom spray, towels) picking paint off our walls. The list goes on and on and I can't believe what the parents let their kids do, but even more I can't believe what the parents themselves do.

We had the same problem with food/drink spills. We got several rolls of heavy clear plastic, put it wherever people sit (under the bleachers and chairs), tape it down with duct tape, then set up the seating. After the meet we remove the seats and just fold up the plastic and throw it away.

 

[jasminekayla]

We are hosting the state meet and there are going to be two play areas that kids can play in. One has a bunch of climbers and the other has a rock wall, WII and other stuff. Hopefully that will make the meet go alittle smoother for those that do have to bring sisters/brothers to meets.

 

[pixie flips]

I take no issue with the parents that are genuinely trying to take care of an unhappy/fidgeting/bored child. Kids can get mad, hungry, excited, playful, stinky...it happens!

Where I take issue is with the parents who just turn their kids loose at the meets. That is a big problem in our area. At most meets there's usually several kids nonstop running up and down the bleachers, across our feet, back and forth on the pathway...all the while their parents are yaking it up with other parents. Then occasionally they'll yell at their kids usually in vain as they tend to ignore the parents.

I was at one meet where the stadium seating was on a severe incline and the kids were just running up and down the concrete steps. My heart kept jumping out of my throat until, yep, one kid finally took a tumble!

I find the parents that let their kids run wild are very inconsiderate. While, yes, it's known that kids can be rowdy...and this sport is full of kids...the parents should be respectful and actually watch their child!

 

[determinator's-mom]

Sadly it is not just kids. Everytime we host a meet our gym gets trashed by kids but also by parents! People are so disrespectful! Coffee spilled all over our brand new carpet with no attempt to clean it up (doubt kids are doing that) other spills all over that the parents should clean up. (And we have signs all over saying no food/drink in seating area.) Garbage everywhere, all over the floor, parents pull out the gym equiptment in our preschool gym that we have put away for seating for their kids to play on. Flushing wads of paper towels down the toilet, stealing everything we put out (hand soap, bathroom spray, towels) picking paint off our walls. The list goes on and on and I can't believe what the parents let their kids do, but even more I can't believe what the parents themselves do.

Totally agree. While I know some parents don't have the ability to get a sitter, there is no excuse for not parenting. We hosted a meet this past weekend and I found a boy in our pit and his little sister out by the dumpster (ALONE!). We had put some pretzels and water out for the gymnasts while they warmed up, I found all these little ones coming into the warm up area, ignoring the GYMNASTS ONLY BEYOND THIS POINT signs and smashing the food on the carpet and letting the cooler run onto the carpet. Yes, times are hectic, schedules are busy and gymnastics meets are stressful but its our job as parents to find a few minutes a day to teach our children right from wrong and how to be respectful.