@twinsmama never fails to delight and crack me up. I have “conveniently” scheduled a detour to Boston en route to a meeting in DC (flying up from the South) so I can watch an away game this September at a BS with a large day student population. Curious to see what the spectator crowd will be.
We had the opposite experience from @twinsmama last year. DS’s first varsity game was against a day school that happened to be fairly close to home for us. Many, many of their parents were there, in full crazy sports parent mode — following their kids up and down the sidelines, and lots of parent coaching. We were the only parents from our school (most of the soccer players are international or otherwise from far away). We were relieved that at all subsequent games (all against BSs), the crazy parent factor was pretty much non-existent.
We found parent attendance to be a mixed bag, and for DS, it varied by sport. One had a handful of parents at weekday games, primarily parents of boarders (!!). Same sport had mostly day student parents at weekend games. (One of those was against a school, primarily day, with really scary parents and coach. Actually, scary team too – lots of ice packs!)
Other sport had mostly day student parents, but very constant in attendance regardless of day of week.
I will add that DS asked HIS parents not to attend games for the first sport - he preferred to tell us afterwards about it. For me, this was very sad. Watching him play was a joy for me. I should have been getting counsel from @GoatMama so as not to be denied!
:)) @gardenstategal I am that crazy BS parent who also flew in for club tournaments last season. I must have earned the bleachers right by putting 100+K miles on my car for her sport travels alone before she even was in BS. My presence probably feels like an arm sleeve…
No way! Not only does DS want and expect us to attend, but he knows that parental attendance also = food delivery. I usually get s Saturday morning text with a shopping list. Spoiled.
I’d love to bring the pup (way bigger than a baby goat, more like a small pony), but that really eliminates the taking kids out to dinner after option.
@Golfgr8 us distant parents applaud you!!! We sit at home patiently awaiting photos from meets/games/functions sent from parents who could attend because they are close enough. One particular parent carved a special place in our hearts last year…so much so that she earned the “person who most impacted you this year at SMS” award for DS. I couldn’t have imagined the year without her, as her son was on two teams with mine and she would make it a point to take extra pictures for me, so I could see my boy. Another parent videod every hockey game and posted them on YouTube. As soon as they were posted, DH and I would sit down and watch them.
So, please please please parents who are able to attend sporting events-think of the parents who are thousands of miles away waiting to hear results, wishing they could be there cheering and seeing their kids in their element- take photos and/or video and share via social media, email, photo share sites. It will mean the world to us!! And yes, you get extra points for embarrassing the kiddos while you are at it!
Send a huge “Thank You” to the parents who travelled to games to cheer on the teams this season. We are very grateful for your support and signage. Having those signs with the names on them ( in addition to your own kids) really made our far-from-home player feel great. Thanks also to the parent groups and schools who provided water, coffee and hot chocolate to the fans - even us parents from your rival teams. Off to one more game next week and coming with the Halloween donuts! Looking forward to heading up for hockey season to see some of your kids play.
Call me shallow: I like to check out the cars in the parking lot. Plus points when parking is near the field so you can see who belongs to what. Seeing a day student drive away in a Porsche Cayman was an unexpected high point.
My daughter’s “far boarder” roommates always appreciate the support.
Trust me! Far boarders LOVE surrogate parents at sporting events!! Thank you to those that go!! It’s one of the hardest things I had to give up.