Do you watch your kid play sports?

you bet! I would be devastated if I missed them.

 

my parents and dh do not understand me being upset about possibly missing 3yr old dd play tball for the first time (I couldbe in labor) so I did not sign her up since She really has no clue it would start.

 

I personally think its fun to see them play sports or sing or be a part of things especially when they are having fun,

My kids aren't old enough yet, but I can't wait to watch them play!! 

 

DH coaches girls basketball and last year one girls parents didn't come to any of the games home or away.  It really bothered him.  Her parents didn't even drive her to practice, another player's mom had to step in.  What kind of horrible parenting is that?  Every year though there is at least one kid with parents who just don't care.      

Yes we always want to be there. If for some reason we can't, my mom is there. There were a couple of kids on my ds's ski team last year who never had a parent attend their races.One couple were doctors with a private practice and they didn't even work on weekends, but they didn't show up for even one race, and didn't give their son any money to eat. Dh ended up buying him dinner after one race because everyone was eating except him.

That is awful. 

My child is putting their time and energy into doing something as well as they can do it. Why in the world wouldn't I show support while they do so.

 

I don't understand parents that ignore that as if it isn't important, it really makes me question their parenting as a whole.

Yes, My ds is on a bowling team and I love watching him and his teamates. Also my dh & ds have garden tractors that they compete in tractor pulls with all summer, and not only do I go to the tractor pulls but I video tape them and post them on our YouTube channel! I try to go to everything that I can, but I do understand when some parents have to work or have kids in other activities and they can't attend every single event. I do find it odd that some parents don't show up at anything, doesn't sound very supportive to me, hmmm...

We went to as many as we could.  There were times the games started way before we got out of work, so we'd have to miss them.  If I couldn't make one, Dh would try to be there and vice versa.  At least one of us was there.

We always went too. Sometimes due to conflicting activities or when I was sick, only one of us would go, but I can't think of any event they ever did that at least one of us wasn't there.

I have seen this before though. I know I talked about the friend of my DS who was on the football team who had come from Africa. His parents never attended one event. Not just his football games, but when he got inducted into National Honor Society, or on scholarship night, the year end banquets....ANYTHING!! I would always take his picture with DS at the NHS induction, scholarship night, etc or events like that and then make sure he had a copy. I know on senior wk in football the parents decorated their son's lockers. I knew he wouldn't have anyone do it, so I took extra stuff for his and decorated it too and then took pictures so he'd have some. They weren't even there on senior night when they introduced the players with their parents. Luckily he had an older brother that came for him though to that. Funny thing was at the games, all the parents would cheer so loudly for him. I think everyone knew about it and wanted him to feel supported. He didn't go to our middle school, but the other football parents from that school said they'd never seen them either. So very weird. It didn't seem like it bothered him, or else maybe he just didn't act like it because he didn't want people to know it bothered him.

Same thing with orchestra. Most of the best players in DD's orchestra were Asian. It was a common occurrence for them to not attend events even if their child had a prominent role in the concert. These rest of us who never missed an event were always puzzled by it, but again, the kids didn't act like they minded. I know we even would drive the 1 1/2 hours each way to DD's college to watch her play in a concert for an hour. She said some of the kids commented they couldn't believe her parents were always there.

I think maybe it's just a cultural difference or at least in my kids cases I think it was as they were more immigrant type situations.

We always went to DD's games or events. I especially liked when hubby would get off of work and meet us there. However, you never know someone's work schedule or other commitments. One of our friends were huge fans of their children's sports then they had a late-in-life baby. The baby couldn't always sit through a game or tolerate being in the weather. For them it was a toss up between watching their older children play or take care of their baby. Of course, when they had to they took care of the baby. I could tell it was a very difficult decision but it was better than making their older child not participate that day.

 

As a kid, if the choice was between getting to do an extra activity I enjoyed or sit at home because mom or dad couldn't be there, I would have chosen to do the activity. I grew up in a household where my mom was mentally ill (and not social) and my dad couldn't always get off work in time to take me to an activity. I missed out on a lot. I would have loved if my parents had the foresight to arrange for other parents to give me a ride so I could do some fun activities.