Dave I have another quandry for you. We have kids involved in the youth scholastic shooting sports challenge. There is a competition 2-3 weekends a month. The kids are grinding clay and winning college money, but no time left for the field...

Dave, I know the feeling. My children are not old enough for sports yet. They are still pretty young. But our day care person has children that participate in sports and music and everything else. This week she will be running the roads of northern Michigan. One daughter is going to Band Camp, the other is playing in softball tournaments, and the son is going to summer camp. So they will be traveling back and forth all week visiting them and dropping them off and picking them back up again and watching the tournaments. Not only does it inconvenience them but it also inconveniences all the people that she does day care for while she is closed. I feel sorry for her own children because they never get any one on one time with their parents. They are always busy watching children or taking them to Sports or Music Concerts and so forth.

Tom the Troll

This is exactly what I've been saying for years and people continue to regard me as some kind of un-American mutant for suggesting that youth sports are absolutely killing the future of hunting and fishing.
Call me a fruitcake, but when I look out over a soccer field or a baseball diamond I don't see any of the alleged character-building qualities of organized sports.
All I see are a bunch of rude, loudmouthed parents living vicariously through their children and in the process training those children to be just as petulant and self-centered as they are.
All those kids would be much better served by spending some time wading around in a creek.
But of course most kids don't do things like that any more because most parents are -let's face it- worthless role models who can't be bothered to actually do things with their children, so they use proxies like video games and sports teams to fill the void left by their lack of engagement.
I despise organized professional sports and the beer-sodden shallow couch culture it's spawned in most American males. And I hate that this top-down entropy has wormed its way into child-rearing.
And I say this as a father whose seven-year-old son plays soccer and baseball but much prefers wading around in a muddy creek.
That's because - unlike a lot of dads - I haven't allowed sports to become the epicenter of my son's life. He plays simply because his friends play, and as he gets older and gets more into fishing, hunting, shooting and being out in the woods with me then I expect his interest in sports will wane (it's beginning to happen already).
Does that make me a lousy father for not actively encouraging (I call it pushing) my son towards sports?
Well, I guess if I want to abdicate my position as a father figure to some bigmouthed ex-jock with a whistle around his neck play-acting Vince Lombardi to a bunch of impressionable little boys, then by the fu#@ed up parameters of modern parenting I'm doing my son a huge disservice.
I can live with that.

What a perfect example to illustrate what I'm talking about...
Just saw a wire story about Rudy Guiliani's son suing Duke Unversity because...wait for it...wait for it...
He got cut from the golf team and it's interfering with his chances of becoming a professional golfer!

Which just proves a theory of mine that if the dad is a tool, it generally follows the son will be an equal or bigger tool.
And sports, when you parse it down to its basic level, is simply an accelerant for the process. Sort of a growth medium for arsehole development...

I'm right there with you, Mark. Ultimately I think organized, year-round youth sports is going to be about as practical as a sixty-mile daily commute in your pimped-out Escalade...
Or, for that matter, pulling the 21-foot, 225-horse bass boat behind said Escalade...
That's why I'm shopping for kayaks right now...

Amen, David (and Dr. Ralph and Chad),

There seems to be a large segment of American parents who have bought into the lie that their children must be engaged, non-stop, in some organized sporting activity.

The engagement in this pursuit is usually led by the "Soccer Mom", with Dad (if there is one) showing up later to watch, if he can. It is pathetic and disgraceful. The children end up being raised and led by a feminine role model, filled with silly ideas like:

"You're the best."
(Odds are you are not.)

"You can be anything you want."
(Really? Can I be a billioinaire?)

"That was great, sweetie."
(Actually, it sucked, but hearing that would hurt your feelings.)

"Come on now everybody - group hug!"
(good grief)

The result: a bunch of feminized, emasculated boys who grow up to be feminized, emasculated men - wandering aimlessly and lacking leadership of their lives. Basic survival skills: hugging and sharing feelings.

Put a man like this into any dangerous or difficult situation, he will likely whine, wet his pants or die.

Where lies the fault? - with the men - and only the men can fix it.

I have more - but the world is calling.

Thanks for the post, Dave. I have been struggling with that issue myself. As the father of a 4-year-old girl, I watched her play tee ball for the first time this year, with lukewarm enthusiasm. The other day, my wife's cousin and I went to shoot trap, and took my daughter along. You would've thought we had just given her a free pass to heaven! She was ecstatic. I'm already softening up the wife to let me get her a .410. Which brings me to a question: Guys, what are your thoughts on a .410 vs. a .22 for a kid's first gun? I was thinking the limited range of the .410 might make it a safer option while she learns to handle the gun responsibly. I got her a toy gun the other day, just to get her used to gun etiquette.

Hate to be the spoiler, but the problem doesn't lie in the sports, but in the manner they are used and taught, just like a gun is the problem but the user. I grew up playing sports and have very fond memories of tossing the ball or shooting hoops with my dad. In fact many important lessons and conversations of life happened over just such occassions and even at 28 years old, these occassions still occur. I was taught many lessons through sports, such as how to compete, how to do so with honor, and integrity; that how you play the game is more important than winning, etc. All of this translates nicely to life application. I in fact had a coach tell our team after an important loss that "guys you played your best, did what was asked of you and lost. The fact that we lost is not what is important, but the fact that you did what you were supposed to do is". See the problem lies in the parents who are living through their children, who are not putting limitations on the time spent in organized activities, and who are not broadening their children's perspectives to the vast world beyond sports. See I also grew up hunting and fishing and just as much as I continue to enjoy sports today, I enjoy spending weekends at the deer lease or fishing tanks. So before bashing sports unequivocally, consider that the problem lies in the parents and instructors more than with the games themselves.

First gun? I vote .22.

Thanks, Dave, and I agree 100%. Around here kids in the traveling baseball league will play 60-70 games by July 1. Parents are taking their kids to games every night of the week, and on the weekends. In this house my kids know the rule - they can play whatever sports they want, but Sunday we are in church, and we will have a family night every week. It's worked for us. Now, my son and I are going after some channel cats tonight, and I need to get a couple of things done around here before we go...

Thanks for the advice guys. Tom, I hadn't thought about what the kick from a .410 would be like for a kid. As an adult, I guess I consider it negligible, but now that you mention it, a .410 as a starter might indeed cause her to flinch or fear shooting altogether. I am definitely going the BB/pellet rifle route - that's how I learned - but I was thinking beyond that. You make a good argument for progressing from the BB gun to the .22, then to the .410 and beyond. Thanks again.

JCB,

I know what you mean about the heck with athletics. My son and daughter got an education. Both went to Universities on scholarships. She is a teacher, he is a Chemical Engineer. He was offered a scholarship to Law school. Most HS jocks can only dream about his 6 figure income by age 27.