The magazine I work for is doing a story about soccer parents. Here is the premise: "While dads take more auspicious roles - coaching, for example - it's the moms who do the best in getting the child fed, dressed, and to the game on time. The mom is usually the one behind the wheel of the SUV with 3 kids scheduled for games at 3 different fields all at the same time." Do you agree or disagree with the premise of this story? Do you have any stories regarding this topic that you'd like to share with our readers? Our emphasis is on Southern California and Orange County families but all forum members are welcome to share. David Kries OC Family Magazine www.ocfamily.com
Its called organisation, you get the coach or another parent of the oldest 2 to take them. And you take the youngest. Or you take the nearest as you'll be at home bythe time the others come back. Failing that you'll have to do what most parents round here seem to do drop and run. We had a coach bring 9 players to every practise and every game. Yes SUV was over crowed with bags ball and girls but no-one else would take them.
True 2/3rds of the time, the other 1/3rd it's the dad who has a flexible work schedule who is doing the heavy lifting. Also, let's not forget that in most of the cases where the moms are doing the hauling the dad is at a job. Most of those dads would happily trade that hour at work to drive the kid to and from practice, if they could.
The coach is a fool. He or she should never get inthe role of being the main driver. There are emergency situations.. sure, but leave the carpooling up the parents. Why would anybody else volunteer to take them when the supercoach does it all. He may think he's doing them a favor but he's really not. He is just enabling irresponsibilty. Just tell these kids and their parents they won't get to play unless they get a ride. You'll see drivers popping up really quickly. Of course, be aware of the very special situations, such as single mom or dads working all the time. Be compassionate and help them out but don't get used and abused by the whole team.
the best way my brothers non-competitive team did it, was say the people that drive, their kids are captains. If they couldn't get anyone then they would say you have to get your own ride. Austen
Growing up there were 5 kids in my family all running seperate ways. My parents knew I wouldn't miss soccer for my life so they made me responsible to get to practices and games. I rode my bike to practice and home games for the better part of two years (after which I jumped up an age group and played on my older brothers team, parents figured at least one could make the trip if two of their 5 kids were involved). My coach picked me up for away games (but he drove me nuts because he didn't get there early enough to allow for a proper warm up). So essentially I was my own soccer mom for two years.
First off, most times, keep in mind that the coach IS a parent, so carpooling with the coach is carpooling with parents. Second, IF the family has a primary money maker, its probably the father, which relegates the mother to car pool driver in most cases. What I saw on our team was games on weekends, both parents where there. Practices during the week, most times the mother dropped 1-3 kids off and either a different family picked up, but often the pickups where done by the Dads. For school teams, which play during the week after school. Most non-kid spectators are Mom's with Dads drifting in towards middle of the second half, dressed in work clothes.
You are generally correct that Mom's are the ones getting kids to the practices/games. However, there is usually a whole lot of car pooling going on. I coach and pick up a lot of kids. A few months ago I got to practice in my Chevy Blazer. The kids were packed in like sardines. I wondered how many I actually brought to practice and counted them as they got out. Total number of players was 11 and this included all the soccer equipment and their backpacks from school.