Do you think you are in the majority or minority?
Minority in 10U, 12U and early 14U
Majority in 14U and older when reality becomes really real.
Do you think you are in the majority or minority?
Parents are not always a fault and somtimes the coach deserves the blame and sometimes there is enough blame for all parties to share in it. But unless there is actual abuse going on, physical or verbal, there is no excuse to make a scene like the one described by OP.There's just lots of talk about crazy parents in this thread that seems to imply that they are always at fault. Their behavior is certainly their own responsibility, but the reason for their "upset-ness" might lie elsewhere.
Do you think you are in the majority or minority?
Right. Parents have a right to be unhappy. They pay a lot of money and if promises aren't delivered on, they certainly might feel angry. They do not have a right to cause a scene, embarrass their child, or be abusive to anyone. But sometimes, the coach IS the problem. It CAN happen. Let's just not forget that.
Do you think you are in the majority or minority?
Yes, there are crappy coaches out there. Unless your DD is in immediate danger because of the coach's actions, pulling your DD off the bench in the middle of a game is a bad move.
No, I completely agree with that. 100%. But, as an example, our HC last year added a girl to the roster in March. The parents (including Dad who came in to help as an AC) were told that she would get plenty of time in the field (3B/OF), as well as hit. HC had been pursuing this girl/family for several seasons, but the time wasn't right until then.
After things started going south with the team following HC's decision to bring 17 to CO (including several pick-ups that were unannounced to anyone), I was talking with the OTHER AC. He told me in confidence that he and his DD would be leaving next season. He also told me that the girl mentioned above was brought onto the team with FULL intentions of using her as DH only and little to no fielding. HC completely blew smoke up their skirts to get her to join and then benched her from the field all season, other than a few scattered innings here and there. Guess what? She and her Dad, the second AC, are leaving next season too. When both AC's and their daughters bail, that should be a sign.
ETA: And I should add that the family paid full fare, even though it was already March.
That's the kind of shady stuff I'm talking about that HC's sometimes do. Sneaky and dishonorable.
I am a bit leery to put this on here but I put myself in a situation recently which embarrassed everybody around me. I won't go into details (if anybody likes car wrecks they can PM me) but it involved my DD, an umpire, a LF fence, a water bottle and eventually (totally unecessarily but I digress) the police. Everybody was in the right in the situation except me. Everybody was apologized to eventually, including the umpire, but I have now put myself on hiatus from DD's games until I can figure out how to control myself.A long time ago at 12U we had a dad storm the dugout, tell of our head-coach (I was an assistant) and pull his kid from the game and later the team. It was ugly for everyone. Our coach was one of the best and most communicative coaches I've ever seen -- he was legendary for being easy-to-get-along with and willing to talk to every parent about everything.
Over the years, we came to talk to the girl (who was extremely embarrassed), the mom (who was also embarrassed) and the dad (who eventually apologized) and we all wished the best for all of them and became friendly with them.
To me, it just goes to show the high-pressure and high-stakes of travel sports sometimes make people do things they shouldn't and wouldn't do otherwise. We can all sit there and watch our kids excel, or be in the dugout and think we are doing right by all the girls and the team. Yet there's probably someone also on the sidelines (or multiple people) just dying inside because things aren't working out as they hoped and it feels like life and death to them in the moment. It's never a bad thing to be empathetic, even if someone's behaving badly (maybe it's even more important to be empathetic in those situations).
Doing the wrong thing is never right. And some people are just monsters. It's true. But not always.