Don't Send Me Your Kid and Expect Me to Fix The Big Problems....

Let's start with a quote:

"Baseball's hard, guys. I mean, it really is. You can love it but, believe me, it don't always love you back. It's kind of like dating a German chick, you know?"  Name the movie and win a free subscription to the Capitalist (wait - you already have one)

I have kids.  Those kids play sports.  I serve as a volunteer coach and board member for the local baseball league because I'm community-minded and a masochist.   It's sign-up time, which means that the parents are signing up their kids and using the registration process to make requests and generally try and fit the kid's baseball schedule into their schedule.

Common requests:

-"Please try and put Jimmy on Tyler Durden's team.  We know the Durdens and will be car pooling with them.  Thanks!"

-"We had a bad experience with Coach Ditka last year.  He seemed a bit too intense for 8-year old baseball.  Please make sure that Jimmy doesn't end up on Ditka's team."

-"We love Coach Dunn.  If there's any chance Jimmy can play on Coach Dunn's team again, that would be great."  (My Favorite!)

But... Every once in a while, a request sneaks in that makes you go "wow".  I saw one of those this week.  Here it is:

-"Please put Bobby with a coach that will be firm with him and also gets results."

I read it a couple of times.  It bothered me more each time I looked at it.  Here's what it said to me about the parents, their responsibility related to their son's behavior and their expectations related to their son's skills.  All have workplace tie-ins:

1.  I know our son has some problems.  We can't control him with the 24 hours we have with him, but we expect you to.

2.  If things go horribly wrong on the field, we expect you to deal with it.  We won't help.  We'll be watching, but don't expect us to snatch him off the field for acting like a fool.

3.  Our son's never been held accountable at home.  Good luck sucker.

4.  By the way, we haven't done everything we need to as parents, but we expect results from you as a coach.  We'll be the first ones to be critical of you losing a bunch.  That's part of our results orientation.  Not for our family, but for others.

How do you think it's going to go for Bobby in the workplace?  

Right....  Pass on Bobby in the draft.  I am Morris Buttermaker.

Comments

[KarenHKerr]

Kids' sports is such a window on a family. I spent years on boards, and because baseball is so hard, and so individual, the dynamics were fascinating.

[Twhadorn]

Such a true reminder of youth league sports in general. As you read it you can picture the children/parents that fit each category.

[_steve_thomas_]

We are having this same conversation about what to do with Sales Training. The parent-manager link is very appropriate.