Parent problem..... already?

[CPEM]

At 6 you basically have a dozen cats you are trying to move in the same direction.

I've often referred to 6u as "the futile science of herding cats." Happy to see I'm not the only one that thinks this way.

 

[Mocoso]

You will always have one or two parents that will try to be the "alpha dogs".. set your goals and expectations and make them clear to everyone... Your job is to take care of 12 kids who are being introduced to the game.. if their kid is already an allstar and knows the game well they should have been playing up in 8U... At 6U you should set a simple rotation of positions where every girl plays every spot through the season.. this kills the "my daughter should play XYZ" and bat at this spot argument....

The parents will "test" you and see how much you are willing to back down... Im about to send an email to my 6U team reminding them there is NO FRIGIN FOOD in my dugout and NO LEAVING THE FIELD for the bleachers to get food... same kid same mom every game.. the girl told me yesterday "Im eating.. not going out yet coach"... its not the kids fault its MOM's fault... your kid doesnt need to eat from 5:30 to 6:30 game... its a total power play on her part

1st warning is email to everyone
Last warning is public shaming in bleachers in front of all other parents...

 

[Indiana]

"No good deed goes unpunished". I'm really sorry you're going through this. I live in a school district with VERY vocal parents (who doesn't, these days?). I want to pull out my hair and run screaming into the woods daily over ludicrous complaints from parents. I've found that most of these parents just want to complain and "raise grave concerns" - they don't usually want to roll their sleeves up and get involved. KUDOS to YOU for getting involved!!!

 

[JJsqueeze]

Im about to send an email to my 6U team reminding them there is NO FRIGIN FOOD in my dugout and NO LEAVING THE FIELD for the bleachers to get food... same kid same mom every game.. the girl told me yesterday "Im eating.. not going out yet coach"... its not the kids fault its MOM's fault... your kid doesnt need to eat from 5:30 to 6:30 game... its a total power play on her part

1st warning is email to everyone
Last warning is public shaming in bleachers in front of all other parents...

My dugout.....Public shaming.....NO FOOD IN DUGOUT.......maybe you are taking 6u a little too serious...

a girl saying "I'm eating, not going out yet coach" is pretty much par for the course at 6u and is one of the things that makes this age fun.

 

[bucket pinata]

never coached 6u but I might consider sending her out there with a glove in one hand and a sandwich in the other. That would at least brighten my day, I guess me not coaching 6u is a good thing.

 

[Strike2]

My dugout.....Public shaming.....NO FOOD IN DUGOUT.......maybe you are taking 6u a little too serious...

a girl saying "I'm eating, not going out yet coach" is pretty much par for the course at 6u and is one of the things that makes this age fun.

If the kid wants to eat instead of play, let her. Send someone else out there, and listen to not one word from the parent of the munching munchkin if there is a complaint about playing time.

 

[chinamigarden]

You will always have one or two parents that will try to be the "alpha dogs".. set your goals and expectations and make them clear to everyone... Your job is to take care of 12 kids who are being introduced to the game.. if their kid is already an allstar and knows the game well they should have been playing up in 8U... At 6U you should set a simple rotation of positions where every girl plays every spot through the season.. this kills the "my daughter should play XYZ" and bat at this spot argument....

The parents will "test" you and see how much you are willing to back down... Im about to send an email to my 6U team reminding them there is NO FRIGIN FOOD in my dugout and NO LEAVING THE FIELD for the bleachers to get food... same kid same mom every game.. the girl told me yesterday "Im eating.. not going out yet coach"... its not the kids fault its MOM's fault... your kid doesnt need to eat from 5:30 to 6:30 game... its a total power play on her part

1st warning is email to everyone
Last warning is public shaming in bleachers in front of all other parents...

If there was no food in the dugout rule on my dd's teams I don't think we would have made it very long before we got an email, and a public shaming. Just make sure you don't have a bag of seeds in your dugout for you to chew on, that public shaming might be big enough for 2.

 

[JJsqueeze]

These are girls that are 6 years old at MOST. Keep them safe, teach them to swing a bat, throw a ball and catch a ball. The rest is just a distraction. No parent should have any reason to complain about playing time because all of the girls should be playing an equal amount, coaches should not be worrying about instilling discipline/enforcing rules (other than safety). The only thing that matters is that they learn some basics and have fun. It is not rocket science. Anyone who has any ill feelings at this age should simply remember that these girls recently learned to wipe their own behinds effectively and some of them are probably still working on perfecting that particular skill.

 

[Cowdogz]

Once on my son's team we had two 9-year-olds refuse to go play outfield. "Nah, don't want to." Asked why. "I just don't want to." We said, "Okay, you're done for the day, then." Both kids said, "Okay."

 

[SoftSocDad]

just because a couple parents were angry their daughter wasn't put on the allstar 6U team.

What is that?