Does your son go to out of town tournaments without you?

Trading off definitely happened a lot in our family.

This may seem obvious but I think things can get cloudy sometimes when you are right in the middle of it all...  My advice is to use the exact same rules and principals that you use for all other parenting decisions, whatever those may be.  If you require a responsible parent that you know and trust to be present at all times, then that's the requirement.  

I was a coach all the way through (18uG) in softball. By 18uG (daughter was fifteen first year) the girls roomed together and not with their parents. 

With my son I coached through 16u (as a 15yo). He always stayed with me. I was sometimes asked (as a parent not a coach) to be responsible for someone's kid who couldn't make it. By 17/18u the boys roomed with each other. 

My son played with the same kids from 10U thru 12U....we would sometimes send him with other parents for a night or two until we could get there.  We also would take another kid with us.  I ran a 15U/16U team for 2 summers....almost all the kids/families had some connection from the past 3 or 4 years.  A lot of times our HC (had a motorhome) would take 6-8 kids with him if it was a tourney that started early (Weds/Thurs).  We just had everyone chip in for a couple rooms until the parents showed up....but even then the boys stayed together more often than not.  Heck, a couple times (16U) my son and a couple other players drove themselves (stayed at same hotel with HC and other kids) if we couldn't make it.   At 17U he and 2 or 3 others drove themselves to all but the furthest tourneys....not all the kids stayed all weekend and didn't really have a team hotel, but they kids would get in touch beforehand and get a couple rooms at the same place so they could hang out between games and in the evenings....or find out where the coaches were staying and stay in that hotel

I on occasion will send my kid with another family and or coach. 

I have to say Elijah, if it's that important to you to stay with that org just send your son with another family....personally I don't see the point or need to travel multiple times a year for 14u when you live in a baseball hotbed. 16u/17u when they are in tourneys as guest players, yeah okay I'll ship him off on a plane, but 14u....not a chance.

I was fortunate to where my mom never had to work and could come to pretty much any tournaments we had.

however, we often were driving teammates to the tournaments if their parents couldn't come. Sometimes they would also sleep in our hotel room. There were other times where kids would fly in on their own and stay with a teammate for the weekend and drive around with their parents.

 

some teams I was on would have players room together. Another team had a bus for the players but parents had to drive themselves. Most teams the choice was up to the parents on how they wanted to do it.

Since 2018 was 15 , I have dropped him off at the airport countless times.  Call me when you land.   Often stays in team hotel rooms or with a coach.  Lived with coach 2 summers ago for about 6 weeks... gotta let 'em grow up

Our son did a few out of town tourneys without us starting at 14U.  Mom is a school administrator, so she is off most of the summer.  Otherwise, he would go with teammates. Never any issue with it.

When I was younger, I was part of our school's debate team.  We flew across the country to tournaments on a regular basis, and it was rare for parents to come. I survived just fine, so I figured my kid would be okay.

Wow. My son will be 18 in a few weeks. Having a lot of debate about letting him go to an out of state tournament in October without a parent or other adult along. We're arranging for a friend to go with him to an in state tournament in a couple of weeks. In large part, I want him to have family to share the experience with and honestly, never occurred to me to let him fly off on his own.

Well it was always fine, he flew to florida a few times and DC a few times. Where ever the team was playi g, i tried to make as many as i could.

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Iowamom23 posted:

Wow. My son will be 18 in a few weeks. Having a lot of debate about letting him go to an out of state tournament in October without a parent or other adult along. We're arranging for a friend to go with him to an in state tournament in a couple of weeks. In large part, I want him to have family to share the experience with and honestly, never occurred to me to let him fly off on his own.

Sent my then 13 year old to the naval academy for a camp one summer.  The airlines computers went down, he was trapped over night in the Baltimore airport....I was a wreck...he had a blast right up until 1am which is when airport security located him at my demand, and put him into "child lockdown" (his words).  

I got over being a wreck, he Uber's all over the Atlanta area now and I'd have no problem with putting him on another flight without me. I just don't see a reason to until he's 16.

I figured if my son and a couple buddies could drive 2 1/2 hours to Columbus on Buckeye football gameday.....navigate the parking fiasco, 105000 people and traffic around the stadium....park....find their car after the game...and then make it back home that heading to a travel baseball tourney shouldn't be too much trouble.  He always did fine lol

I'll say this much... when my son was 13, he and 3 other 13/14 year olds shared a room with 2 queen beds at an away tournament. After 3 days I stopped by the room with the Mom of one of the other kids. I peeked in the room and all I can say is... "the horror. The horror."

NYdad2017 posted:

I'll say this much... when my son was 13, he and 3 other 13/14 year olds shared a room with 2 queen beds at an away tournament. After 3 days I stopped by the room with the Mom of one of the other kids. I peeked in the room and all I can say is... "the horror. The horror."

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! I can only imagine!

We've sent our son with other families when one of us hasn't been able to make it -- or when we had to come a day or two later, but haven't yet sent him on his own for out of town.  There has to be some adult supervision before 17-18 years old and coaches usually don't like to be the babysitter. Not sure how they get around in a town they're flying to without parents around to get them to/from the ballpark. 

Iowamom23 posted:

Wow. My son will be 18 in a few weeks. Having a lot of debate about letting him go to an out of state tournament in October without a parent or other adult along. We're arranging for a friend to go with him to an in state tournament in a couple of weeks. In large part, I want him to have family to share the experience with and honestly, never occurred to me to let him fly off on his own.

Sent you a PM, Iowamom

We went to every game and trip until he was 17u. (It goes fast and we couldn't bear to miss watching him play). Then at 17u he lived with a host family for 8 weeks in the summer. The organization arranged transportation and hotels for all events. The coaches provided team supervision including curfews and hotel rules with consequences. We did allow him to fly on his own to WWBA underclass as a 16 year old. Met him there. 

It does go by so fast. Go to as many games as you can!

This depends on the team and how well you know the parents.  Beginning at 10u, we sent our boy with other parents when we had conflicts that kept us away.  Really a personal question - team and the boy.  Same on flying alone.  Our kids fly internationally alone beginning at 15, but I could see others not doing so.  

Thanks all. Great info as usual.