THERE’S something about parents and how they react to their kids’ sport.
You have the enthusiastic volunteer:  the person who gets roped into running the team, organising gear, and turning up at 8.30am on Saturday morning to make sure everyone is ready to go.
You have the enthusiastic non-volunteer: the parent who makes sure their child is there on time with the correct kit, yells support from the sideline and chats to the other parents, but has no interest in and/or time for running the team.  They just like seeing their kids playing sport.
You have the no-shows: Parents who work, or worst, aren’t really interested in what their kids do so long as they don’t have to do anything.
Then we come to the worst:  the bitchy bastard.  These can fall into two sub-categories – the feral or the pushy.
The feral are the ones normally seen on the sideline yelling abuse at the other team.  “Kill that little shit, Jaymont!” is a familiar refrain.  They also tend to invest their children with Silly First Name Syndrome.
The pushy are those yelling abuse at their own kids.  Now don’t get me wrong.  A bit of pushy is OK.  My wife is a bit pushy with our eldest, but only to motivate him to do something.  For example, he reckoned he couldn’t swim 100m.  She showed him that he could.  This sort of pushy is good, as we are now starting to see a bit of all-important self motivation from a previously motivation-free zone.
Bad pushy are those who abuse their children for not doing well.  They are the ones who swear at the opposing T-ball coach in front of 20 kids.
Mostly, they are bullies, as I have found out.  They are full of bombastic aggression towards kids, but as soon as an adult steps in and says anything to them, they don’t have the strategies to deal with it other than to ignore it or resort to more abuse.
Frequently, they’re underachievers themselves, choosing to hide behind a front of bluff and bluster.
I’ve had to deal with several of these types, stemming from complaints which ‘enthusiastic volunteers’ have felt incapable of dealing with – usually because they feel they’ll get the bash themselves.  In every case the offender has been quiet, in some cases apologetic.  Not one has attempted to argue with or bash me – because they won’t pick on someone their own size.
The whole pushy parent sport syndrome is a  power trip for them.  Unfortunately it’s the kids on the receiving end. It’s the fastest way for them to lose confidence and interest in what should be a fun physical experience.
So, with all that in mind as he drift towards another winter of soccer and rugby (the main offenders seem to hang out in these sports), if you see a pushy parent hurling abuse on the sideline, it’s a fairly safe bet that if you sidle up and say “hey, if you can’t say anything positive, then best not to say anything at all, mate” or something along those lines will quieten them down.
Just don’t suffix it as my dear friend Nick did one famous day at Stokes Valley with a “or I’ll punch your ****ing head in.”
Kids need sport.  They need to be motivated.  What they don’t need are abusive adults on the sidelines making them think there’s something wrong with them.