A bad parental play

I know a lot of parents who are involved with their children's sports activities. And when I say, "involved," I mean everything from coaching the team, to encouraging their child to continue so they can get a scholarship, to being the taxi driver who gets everyone to the practices on time. It's a big commitment - for both the kids and the parents.

And that is how we end up with parents who snap at games.

Let me be clear: Parents shouldn't flip out because of a "bad call" or anything that happens during the game that seems unfair to their child. I mean, this is your child's sporting event and you should be a role model of good sportsmanship and let the refs do their jobs. And yet - sometimes parents just can't control themselves at their kids' games.

My family is not sports-oriented. While I supported my son's swimming when he was doing that activity, I was grounded in the singular thought that swimming was HIS activity. Not mine. I was just the person who got him there on time; the rest was up to him.

I would hope that I would have the same mindset if my son chose to play another sport. But who can tell? Maybe all that stress from getting your children to multiple soccer games in one weekend catches up with a person.

For now, I will just listen to other parents tell me their sports stories with a grateful heart that we are not involved with those activities as well.

Are you a good sports parent? Tell me in the comments.