To all of the parents out there, and you know who you are, who would rather take the time to email and complain about the way something is being done rather than volunteer to help fix it - here's my response. MOVE ON. THIS IS NOT THE PLACE FOR YOU. TAKE YOUR TOYS AND LEAVE.
Let me break it down.
Every parent is busy (check). Many parents have multiple children (check). Many parents have dual income families where both parents work (check). And yet, SOME of these parents still find the time to volunteer. Whether its school or sports or scouts or dance or whatever....they VOLUNTEER. Very few of us are sitting on the couch all day figuring out way to keep ourselves busy. So PLEASE lets stop with the "I would help, but I'm just too busy". We are ALL too busy.
None of us know how to do all the stuff that is asked of us. I have 3 boys. Clearly I have never played a boys sport, or done boy scouts. I am not a licensed teacher. Basically I have no experience that would make me more qualified than anyone else to be a room parent or a tball coach. The good news is that in this day and age, you can LEARN ANYTHING with a little thing called the internet. You can get project ideas and learn how to make duct tape hats. You can get any kind of sports instruction or drill known to man. You just have to be WILLING to make the time to do so.
Nobody is perfectly happy with the way things are run. From the top, down. We have 2 choices. Suck it up, or change it. You can either live with it, or try to make it better. And by trying to make it better, I don't mean bitching and complaining about it to everyone who will listen. I mean HELPING. STEPPING UP. Bringing whatever skills you may have to the table. Obviously you are fairly apt with a keyboard, so why not help with registration or correspondence. Organization is 90% of the challenge of running ANYTHING. Believe me, there is a job out there for ANYONE who wants to volunteer.
Now let's make it a bit more personal.
Coaches kids get "more"....more playing time, better teams, blah blah blah. You can look at this 2 ways. 1) Many coaches kids spend more time working on their sport with those same parents that are coaching. A lot of coaches kids had parents who played their sport - or a sport - and probably inherited some skill along the way. or 2) they are VOLUNTEERING to coach their kid. Many times that kid gets to play at a higher level than maybe another kid. If you don't think that's fair, YOU VOLUNTEER. Because if your kid is one of the many many kids out there whose parents think they deserve to be on the best team, YOU must have some skill yourself.....go ahead and lend it to the program.
9 years ago there was no travel baseball in my area. Many of our local kids were not making our high school team because they were not exposed to the same level of talent. So guess what. We started a travel baseball program. We had to recruit my father to coach, scrape together funds, and beg people to play that first year. But guess what? We were unhappy with where we were....so we CHANGED it. 4 years later, there was no local lacrosse. SO WE STARTED A LEAGUE. Do you know how many of my kids play in that travel baseball organization that i spent 4 years of my life on? ZERO (thank you lacrosse). But another great group of super busy parents stepped up to take that on, so that we could move on as well.
When we started our lacrosse league 5 years ago, we had EXACTLY 2 men that had ever played the sport to help us. Every single person from that point on that has volunteered to coach has had to LEARN THE GAME. Online drills, skills clinics, hands on coaching. They have all taken the TIME from their very busy lives to help. Not so that THEIR kid could make the better team. BELIEVE THAT. These coaches and team parents are helping ALL of the kids, not just theirs. I have exactly NO PATIENCE for parents who want to drop their kids off at a practice 2x a week and then complain about the results. You want your kid to get better, WORK WITH HIM. You want your team to be better, HELP OUT. You want a voice in the organization, SHOW UP.
We are living in a culture where everyone is entitled and no one is responsible. It is not my job to parent, coach, entertain, discipline, or love your child. That's YOUR JOB. Stop expecting others to do it for you and then being unsatisfied with the results.
To everyone out there that volunteers their time, energy, voice and skill to ANYTHING that involved the kids - I say THANK YOU. And THANK YOU AGAIN.
For those of you who don't - I say DON'T COMPLAIN. I don't care if you help. I really don't. But if you don't, you get what you get. And the next time you want to complain to someone who is working a full-time job, running an 11 team league, coaching a youth AND high school team, and still trying to be a dad, I say TAKE A LONG LOOK IN THE MIRROR FIRST.
