[katyseagull]

[ QUOTE ]



Your friend is right when he says that parents are too influential and that kids get away with smarting off.

Ask him who lets them get away with it?

Your friend has some serious problems if he thinks that the solution is smacking a kid and putting them ‘in their place”.



[/ QUOTE ]

Myrtle,

In fairness to my friend, I think he may be joking when he says that kids these days need to be smacked. I'm not really sure though. Also, I think he means that parents are too influential with youth sports and coaches. They come onto the field and they interfere. They complain about how much play time their kids get and what positions their kids are stuck playing, etc. He's not the only one I heard this kind of stuff from. This happens to be a local story and you wouldn't believe how many people at my office sided with the coach and not the parents of Ricky. I was surprised by the overwhelming support of the coach just based on the facts as I presented them in my OP.

There was one guy at my work, however, who sided with Ricky's parents. He happens to be a football coach for his own son's team. He told me that a coach should never swing a kid by his face mask and it should have been grounds for firing.

I think it's interesting that DrewDevil and Diebitter would have confronted the coach immediately. That's probably the best solution, actually. It doesn't hurt that they are towering and scary looking (j/k! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]). My sister says it's hard to know when to step in and complain to coaches. The culture of male sports in her small town is rather intimidating and they scoff at her a lot. I can just picture it now - "hey uh, excuse me sir, but could you not swing my kid by the head anymore, thx! I really appreciate it [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]. "