How do you keep parents from ruining youth sports?

Question

There are parents who mess up a sporting event between young children (6-10 year olds) by getting into fights, arguing with coaches, etc. etc. How do you stop this?

Answer 1

start a petition among the parents to establish a good sportsmanship contract.

bring it forth to the coach and tell them your concerns. this makes for a stressful game when it should be fun, and it takes it away from the kids.

Answer 2

AYSO uses the 'Kids Zone' program, which tries to educate parents on good sportsmanship, so that they can model it for their children.  http://soccer.org/Programs/ProgramUpdate...

Of course, even with that, you end up with parents who just sign the pledge, then go ahead & act like fools out there on the fields.  

For the little kids (under 5 & under 6 teams), our local AYSO has a volunteer 'field director'.  In theory, their job is to make sure fields are set up, players on on the right field, etc.  In reality, their time is mostly spent babysitting parents  

Answer 3

This is something that has been going on forever, and probably will go on forever. There is always at least one parent who pushes their kid, and has to start trouble on the field.  All you can really do is set a good example for your children, by that is not how you act.  Or you have them banned from games.  

Answer 4

You can't really stop it.  It's just ignorance among the parent.  There should be a signed contract that parents need to sign stating that if they fight/argue with the coaches or umpires then both the parent and child will be kicked out of the sport.  Those sporting events should be about fun and about teamwork not about whose kid is better than the other.

Answer 5

You can't control another adult. That is the saddest part of having your child in a sport because there will ALWAYS be at least one parent who has to control everything. My son played Pop Warner football when he was 5 and after that season was over we never put him in it again. It was too political. Now my son is in AYSO soccer and so far everything is going good except the one parent who constantly over rides the coaches decision about the boy who plays or butts in all the time. Its like good grief, if he wanted to be so in control he should have volunteered to coach.  

Answer 6

I think somebody needs to talk to these parents and tell them that it is just a game and we encourage the kids to play for fun and it's not about winning or losing. Maybe you can makeup some sort of punishment if they do it.