DD has missed tournaments for school events, a wedding and a church event. While TB is very important to her so are a lot of other things. For her (and us) academics come before athletics and our faith is very important to us as well. She misses church regularly for SB tournaments, but when it comes to a one time event (wedding, baptism, etc) I will leave the choice up to her. Her TB coaches have never penalized her for choosing her school or faith over TB. She does not take these decisions lightly. She rarely misses practices and she catches for 3 pitchers lessons outside of regular practice. Her coaches understand that she is committed, but also know that sometimes "life" has to take priority. We always try to give the coach as much notice as possible when DD will miss (which in 5 years of playing has been maybe 3-4 times).
Now all that said...I think that anyone else forcing their opinion or priorities on a player/family is unfair. It is not MIL's (or anyone else's - except maybe mine) place to decide what is right for my DD!
Now all that said...I think that anyone else forcing their opinion or priorities on a player/family is unfair. It is not MIL's (or anyone else's - except maybe mine) place to decide what is right for my DD!