The funnier, lighter side of sports parenting is my favorite thing to write about. There is just so much material there. Some of us parents just can’t get our minds off of our kids’ sports stuff. I know I’m guilty of some of these and I think other crazy baseball parents will totally relate!
#1 Your family summer vacation revolves around a tournament costing thousands of dollars to some far-off land, like Omaha, Nebraska.
#2 You click on Amazon and spend hours searching for exactly the right baseball pants for your kid, and more baseball accessories for yourself.
#3 Your kid’s bedroom looks like something out of Architectural Digest and yours looks like a cheap motel room.
#4 Someone asks how your kid is doing and you have a five minute conversation about their baseball life complete with pictures, and mention nothing about school.
#5 You spend Thanksgiving at a 4-day, out-of-town tournament instead of being with family and you’re perfectly fine with it.
#6 You join the Little League board just so you can know everything that’s going on with the league, and possibly get your kid some kind of advantage.
#7 Your friends ask you to do lunch on the weekend and you say, “I cant, my son has baseball”, and you act disappointed.
#8 You move your kid between five different teams to find one where he can play infield.
#9 Several items of clothing in your drawers say “Baseball” on them.
#10 You keep an extra baseball glove in your car just in case some baseball breaks out.
#11 Your grocery shopping revolves around snacks for baseball and what would be best for dinner, or even whether you’ll be able to cook dinner because…practice.
#12 Your purse has a ticket book to the batting cages in it, but no money.
#13 Most of the pictures in your photo collection are of various sporting events.
#14 You own every tournament accessory and have an actual “Baseball Mom Bag” complete with every item needed in case of The Apocalypse.
#15 You have no extra money because you spend it all on pitching coaches, batting coaches, tournaments, travel teams, and baseball equipment.
If you enjoyed reading this, you might also like my article: A Typical Tournament Day.
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I very much enjoyed reading this because it just brings so many memories and thoughts to my mind. I have a couple nephews and playing sports with them is so much FUN!! Oh how I miss being a kid and playing sports not worrying about how to get to the tournaments or how I’m going to afford it.
Haha…the kids have it easy, right? All they have to worry about is playing. 🙂
Being married to a former (Is there such a thing?) baseball mom, this post made me laugh. My wife’s son is in his mid-20s now but it’s amazing how many times my wife and I run into other “Baseball Moms (and Dads)” in this town and their common past is the first thing they talk about. I’ve started to think that the bonds between parents of kids who were on the same team forms an extended family! So I can definitely relate to the obsession.
You could probably find more, such as “Every time you see an athlete do something unsportsmanlike on TV, you loudly announce, ‘I would NEVER let my son do that!'”
So true! And yes, there definitely is a bond between us as sports parents. Thanks so much for your observations. 🙂
Been there. Done that! My wife even has that bag!
Cherish every moment – they go fast!
I know, I’m already getting sad because my older son moved on to track and my younger son will be entering high school this fall. Thanks for your comments! 🙂
Haha my Mom would have loved this when I was growing up. My brother and I both played from tee ball all the way up through varsity in high school and my mom or dad never missed a game. They were definitely more into it than we were and Red Sox memorabilia was just littered in our rooms!
Awww…I love hearing stories like this. I hope my boys have these same memories of their childhood. 🙂