Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall (Post 510613)

Enh. I wouldn't be overly concerned. If you have a kid who is clearly a star and needs that talent developed (sports, chess, music, or anything, really), then you'll do it. But if your kid really just loves something, manage your own expectations and do what you can to help them spend time doing whatever that is.

My hope is that my kid can use sports to help her resume for really good D-III schools. I'm not one of these lunatics who is shooting for a scholarship. And, frankly, if your kid gets a scholarship to a shitty D-II school or a crappy D-I school, is that the best thing for them or you?

TM

Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall (Post 510617)

Shit is crazy. My mom used the: "Go outside and find someone to play with, but be home by ____" method, as did all my friends' parents. When my daughter was young enough that I was taking her to playgrounds, I had to tell her to go up to kids and ask if they wanted to play or if she could play too. Much anxiety ensued until she actually did it and then had lots of fun. Hell, as recently as 3 years or so ago, I had to tell her to go ask a group of adults and kids playing an unorganized soccer game if she could play. Had a ball, of course.

I wouldn't do that now. She'd embarrass and anger them. I can't even play around with her anymore in soccer. It's completely pointless for her and for me. I clearly suck, but I can't believe how skilled she and her friends are. It is amazing.

I make sure I beat her soundly when we play basketball or ping pong, though. No mercy.

TM

Originally Posted by Replaced_Texan (Post 510626)

I read an article last week that gave lots and lots of props to your mom (and I suspect all of our mom's) method last week: https://byrslf.co/thoughts-on-the-ve...g-14af397cee2c (second half of the piece).

Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall (Post 510617)

I make sure I beat her soundly when we play basketball or ping pong, though. No mercy.

TM

Originally Posted by Did you just call me Coltrane? (Post 510628)

I will normally beat 90% of any random group of ping pong players. However, I was invited over by a new neighbor to watch the recent GGG fight...and I got torched...several times. I was probably the second to worst player there. Just a great gathering of ping pong talent.

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski (Post 510627)

You can’t decide to be that type parent. Your neighborhood decides.

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski (Post 510622)

My son and daughter both played travel. My girl for the local dad coached cheap team. My son for the team having "coaches with accents" ( "I played pro in England so pay me") Son's teams was forever screwed by this type problem. no one kicked off if the 'rents could float a check, and no one benched ever even if the word pass was not even in their vocabulary. It is bullshit. As near as I can tell one kid from all of their teammates got a scholarship.

The thing that really opened my eyes was when my kids started reffing. They were 13. They could ref rec league U-13, or any U-8 (pre-travel). No travel games at first. The U-8 having a mix of the kids that will be travel and those that will be rec was a problem. Or more accurately the U-8 parents of the kids that will be travel were. I would drive them to ref, and so I'd watch. Those U-8 parents would be screaming like mad people, and I just thought how can you watch these little kids playing and scream like that? But i also realized I had too, and was currently doing the same for my kids in their older leagues.* We shouldn't change any of it so the US can make the World Cup, but we should maybe ban parents from watching so that kids can just have fun.

*Don't even ask me what I had to become to deal with rival coaches in travel basketball, or my greatest shame, yelling at Canadian b-ball refs at a Gus Macker in London Ontario, when I went into what was required to get fair treatment v. the yelling US coaches. Canadians didn't yell. i'm surprised they didn't try to hospitalize me.

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy (Post 510629)

I've got a niece who is seriously into table tennis. Plays competitively, travels far and wide. It's a mind-blowingly cool game to see played really well.

Originally Posted by Replaced_Texan (Post 510626)

I read an article last week that gave lots and lots of props to your mom (and I suspect all of our mom's) method last week: https://byrslf.co/thoughts-on-the-ve...g-14af397cee2c (second half of the piece).

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski (Post 510627)

You can’t decide to be that type parent. Your neighborhood decides.

Originally Posted by Did you just call me Coltrane? (Post 510628)

I will normally beat 90% of any random group of ping pong players. However, I was invited over by a new neighbor to watch the recent GGG fight...and I got torched...several times. I was probably the second to worst player there. Just a great gathering of ping pong talent.

Originally Posted by Did you just call me Coltrane? (Post 510631)

My kids play field hockey and...oh god what have I become? FIELD HOCKEY? Pretty soon someone is going to try to get me to join a country club.

Originally Posted by Did you just call me Coltrane? (Post 510632)

It's such a fun...sport? It's a blast to watch when it's played well.

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy (Post 510629)

I've got a niece who is seriously into table tennis. Plays competitively, travels far and wide. It's a mind-blowingly cool game to see played really well.

Originally Posted by Pretty Little Flower (Post 510636)

You're. Not. In. A. Country. Club. ?.

Don't fight it. The level of table tennis play at most clubs is elite. (It's the squash guys, who have lost a step but not that competitive spirit!)

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy (Post 510637)

More of a sport than fuckin golf.

Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall (Post 510635)

I need an invite. There's nothing better than a round robin when everyone is really good.

TM

Originally Posted by greatwhitenorthchick (Post 510638)

I am mind-blowingly good at shuffleboard.

Originally Posted by greatwhitenorthchick (Post 510638)

I am mind-blowingly good at shuffleboard.

Originally Posted by Did you just call me Coltrane? (Post 510631)

My kids play field hockey and...oh god what have I become? FIELD HOCKEY? Pretty soon someone is going to try to get me to join a country club.

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop (Post 510644)

What sort of kids do well with field hockey? Not sure that soccer is the right sport for my daughter.

eta: Or curling?

Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall (Post 510634)

What do you mean?

TM

Originally Posted by Did you just call me Coltrane? (Post 510641)

And nothing worse when everyone but you is bad. I can't stand holding back.

I play tennis with a guy who is hyper competitive but not as good as me - I always try to keep the ball in play at the beginning of match (because it's more fun that way), until his hyper competitiveness rears its ugly head. Then I crush his will.

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop (Post 510644)

What sort of kids do well with field hockey? Not sure that soccer is the right sport for my daughter.

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski (Post 510646)

If the other kids in your neighborhood are at camp or practice telling your kid to go out and play with the other kids doesn’t work.

Originally Posted by greatwhitenorthchick (Post 510645)

I played field hockey and I am good at curling and shuffleboard, so basically kids like me -- it helps to be Canadian and born with a stick in your hand and a curling rock in the other. Those sports just seemed to come much more naturally than soccer to me, mostly because kids just played pickup hockey (street hockey, pond hockey, etc ) every day pretty much, and I curled from when I was about 5, so it just came more naturally than soccer, basketball, etc.

That's not much help to you if she's not already doing some kind of variation of the sport already so you can see if she has affinity for it.

I will say that curling is a good sport if you enjoy stuff like chess and planning and strategy. It's like Game of Thrones on ice -- all kinds of plotting and battles. Less blood usually.

And field hockey is very aggressive, lots of sly shin whacking. It helps to be devious.

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop (Post 510644)

What sort of kids do well with field hockey? Not sure that soccer is the right sport for my daughter.

eta: Or curling?

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop (Post 510650)

This, from someone on Twitter:

The media making Weinstein a Clinton scandal is pretty definitive proof that if it wasn’t the emails, it would have been something else.

Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall (Post 510647)

I've always sucked at tennis. But, yeah. We used to have a ping pong table at my last firm and we'd sneak and play every once in awhile. We asked a summer once if he wanted to join the "club." I played him and he was very competitive, but just not good enough (being the best in your family doesn't mean a damn thing, homie). So he would try shit like trying to serve before I got back to the table after I was retrieving a ball. Shit like that. Had to get smoked.*

TM

*And, yes, I realize a punishing ping pong game is probably the least impressive thing in the world. But I just let me have it. ;-)

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop (Post 510650)

This, from someone on Twitter:

The media making Weinstein a Clinton scandal is pretty definitive proof that if it wasn’t the emails, it would have been something else.

Originally Posted by SEC_Chick (Post 510697)

This is a pretty stupid take.

It seems to me the media is going out of its way to avoid making this a Clinton scandal. You don't hear anyone mentioning Bill in the same sentence as Weinstein, Trump and O'Reilley.

Hillary has a pretty fine line she has to walk, if she goes all out and says all of these women should be believed, people can trot out everything she did to destroy Bill's accusers. Because of her past, and that of her husband, she can't really offer a strong rebuke without seeming like a hypocrite.

I will say that based on the fact that they allowed their daughter to intern there, I am pretty sure the Obamas didn't know anything about Weinstein's reputation.

Originally Posted by SEC_Chick (Post 510697)

It seems to me the media is going out of its way to avoid making this a Clinton scandal.

Originally Posted by SEC_Chick (Post 510697)

This is a pretty stupid take.

It seems to me the media is going out of its way to avoid making this a Clinton scandal. You don't hear anyone mentioning Bill in the same sentence as Weinstein.

Originally Posted by Pretty Little Flower (Post 510700)

The very first suggested search when you type in "Bill Clinton" to Google is "Bill Clinton Harvey Weinstein." If you proceed with the search, you get a slew of news articles and magazine pieces, many of which compare Bill to Weinstein or talk about the donations he received from Weinstein. You need to break out of your liberal bias media echo chamber.

Originally Posted by SEC_Chick (Post 510697)

I will say that based on the fact that they allowed their daughter to intern there, I am pretty sure the Obamas didn't know anything about Weinstein's reputation.

Originally Posted by Did you just call me Coltrane? (Post 510701)

Were you Montecore?

Originally Posted by Pretty Little Flower (Post 510700)

The very first suggested search when you type in "Bill Clinton" to Google is "Bill Clinton Harvey Weinstein."

Originally Posted by Adder (Post 510702)

Which makes me wonder if we should just assume that anyone who is a power-tripping asshole in general is also likely using the same behavior to prey on women.

Originally Posted by Pretty Little Flower (Post 510703)

I may have been. Actually, I only now vaguely remember that there was a Montecore sock, and remember nothing about it, so can you explain the joke to me. I know that this will kill any humor in the joke, but help a fellow out.