Thank God I'm Usually a Outta Control Music Mom

We are playing sports parents for a couple of months again. Emilie is playing volleyball with the 5th and 6th grade league. Her friend's dad is coaching their team, and he is great--very positive, doesn't argue inappropriately with other coaches, refs, or parents, etc. Em's going to try out for the jr. high team in the fall, so we figure it's good practice. She has fun.

Then there are the parents.

Today, the officiating was most definitely poor. Our girls lost a couple of points that were clearly in their favor and ended up losing the games. The refs were a couple of teenage girls that were rarely even looking at the BALL when the points were made. They were too busy checking to see if they looked cute. They deferred to the other coach. Arrgh. It was more upsetting because once the points were called wrong, the girls lost their momentum after doing fairly well up to that point. Mark (the coach) was good at the end of the game about pointing out that even if they had gotten those two points, they still lost by 10, so it wasn't anything to lose sleep over--they needed to concentrate on the big picture and not one part of the game. They went ahead and played the third game for practice and almost won--until more bad calling near the end of the game. The other coach seemed quite serious, and it was bizarre...her girls cheered much more after winning that game (the one that didn't really matter) than the first two that did.

BUT...
Here's the thing that annoyed me more. There was a particular mom from our team. I was sitting in front of her. Most of the parents were upset and muttering a bit, but she was loud and obnoxious. About the game. About the other kids wandering around. About everything. She was going on and on. And on. At one point, she said (something like), "I JUST CAN'T BELIEVE KIDS AND PARENTS THESE DAYS. IF I HAD GONE OUT IN MY PAJAMA PANTS AND MY UNDERWEAR SHOWING ON A SATURDAY MORNING, MY DAD WOULDA BEAT THE CRAP OUTTA ME. WE COULDN'T EVEN GO AROUND THE HOUSE IN BRA AND PANTIES IF HE WAS HOME. HE WOULDA BEAT THE CRAP OUTTA US. IF MY KIDS ACTED LIKE SOME OF THESE KIDS ARE ACTING, I'D BEAT THE CRAP OUTTA THEM. AND THEY KNOW IT. THAT'S WHY MY KIDS ARE IN CONTROL. THEY KNOW HOW TO BEHAVE AND KNOW IF THEY AREN'T IN CONTROL, I'D BEAT THE CRAP OUTTA THEM."

Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

There's something quite lovely and refreshing about those calm, formal music competitions. First, they are few and far between. Second, most of the time we parents are simply listening proudly while the kids are playing concerts and sometimes competitions that they've worked toward really hard and for a really long time.

I'm a much better music mom. I haven't got the sports mom thing down yet. ;)