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Reply to "Dad, it doesn't help...."

I think I have gotten a lot better over the years, but we all do slip up.  My remaining weakness is refs who (in my "expert" opinion) are letting a game get out hand.  I'm talking about soccer and basketball here, rather than baseball--when a lot of pushing and tripping and trash-talking starts and the refs just let it go.  The only time I was ever ejected from one of my kids' games was for yelling "Come on ref, someone is going to get hurt out there!"  Honest, that was all I said.  I apologized to my kids, the team parents and the coach.  Not an experience I ever want to repeat (but I confess those same words have come out of my mouth at games a few times since). 

I wonder what folks here think about something:  Soccer clubs in my neck of the woods increasingly have what they call "Silent Saturdays" (or Sundays), when they ask parents to not say anything from the sideline, not even cheering or positive comments like "great pass!"  This seems really unnatural to me--people go to sporting events to cheer.  But I asked my kids, both high schoolers, what they thought about this and they said it was great.  Both agreed that they would prefer to play without cheering, maybe even without an audience at all.  Now some of this may be teenager bravado, but I think they generally meant it.  So I wonder if the idea of watching in silence will catch on.  There are certainly games when folks in the stands make me think it would be an improvement...

Last edited by Chico Escuela
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