Overzealous parents

[Suudy]

Friday night, we were reminded of a situation a few years ago.

I was umpire, and A ran a simple dive play up the middle. The TE came out to block, missed his block and stood there. He was just looking around and not paying attention. Well, the pile rumbled forward a couple of hards and fell across the back of his legs. When we cleared the pile, it was apparent the kid was hurt. We stop the clock and call in the trainer. The wings (4 man crew) are on their sidelines, and the R and I get together near the ball.

The trainers/coaches come out, take a look, and determine he broke his leg. They call over the ambulance. While the kid is being taken care of, we send the players to their sidelines. As soon as the ambulance starts up, the kid's mother freaks out and runs onto the field. We don't think anything of it, since she's obviously concerned for her kid and wants to be with him. Turns out she wanted to give us a piece of her mind. She rants a raves about how it is our fault her kid is hurt. If we "had paid attention and called the game right, this would have never happened." She's hysterical. The coaches near the kid look over and do nothing. Our R tells her she should either look over her kid or leave the field. This really pisses her off and she dives in again. Still the coaches ignore her and let her rant. Finally our R goes to the coach and tells him to get her off the field. The coach, after giving a stupid look, says "Well, she's got a point." He then grabs the lady and gets her onto the ambulance with her kid.

As the coach runs off the field back to the sidelines, he stops by the huddle on the sidelines. Our wing clearly hears him say "Looks like they won't flag anything tonight. If they can cheat and give the game away, I guess you guys will have to do whatever it takes to win." Having not heard anything that transpired in the middle of the field, he just tells the coach and players that _any_ unfair acts will be flagged.

Sometimes I just don't get the parents. It can't be their kid's fault--ever.

[mikesears]

Originally posted by Suudy
Friday night, we were reminded of a situation a few years ago.

I was umpire, and A ran a simple dive play up the middle. The TE came out to block, missed his block and stood there. He was just looking around and not paying attention. Well, the pile rumbled forward a couple of hards and fell across the back of his legs. When we cleared the pile, it was apparent the kid was hurt. We stop the clock and call in the trainer. The wings (4 man crew) are on their sidelines, and the R and I get together near the ball.

The trainers/coaches come out, take a look, and determine he broke his leg. They call over the ambulance. While the kid is being taken care of, we send the players to their sidelines. As soon as the ambulance starts up, the kid's mother freaks out and runs onto the field. We don't think anything of it, since she's obviously concerned for her kid and wants to be with him. Turns out she wanted to give us a piece of her mind. She rants a raves about how it is our fault her kid is hurt. If we "had paid attention and called the game right, this would have never happened." She's hysterical. The coaches near the kid look over and do nothing. Our R tells her she should either look over her kid or leave the field. This really pisses her off and she dives in again. Still the coaches ignore her and let her rant. Finally our R goes to the coach and tells him to get her off the field. The coach, after giving a stupid look, says "Well, she's got a point." He then grabs the lady and gets her onto the ambulance with her kid.

As the coach runs off the field back to the sidelines, he stops by the huddle on the sidelines. Our wing clearly hears him say "Looks like they won't flag anything tonight. If they can cheat and give the game away, I guess you guys will have to do whatever it takes to win." Having not heard anything that transpired in the middle of the field, he just tells the coach and players that _any_ unfair acts will be flagged.

Sometimes I just don't get the parents. It can't be their kid's fault--ever.

I've had angry parents yell at me, stare me down, etc.

To me, it seems that the moms in the crowd can be far worse than the dads. No parent wants to see their child injured and it can be a tramatic event for the parent. Sometimes this tramatic event means immediate misplaced anger directed at someone in authority. It comes with the territory of being an authority figure.

I remember when my daughter broke her arm. My daughter was jumping on her bed in her bedroom and broke it minutes before guests were to arrive before her third birthday party. My wife was in the bedroom when it happened. I wasn't angry with my daughter when it happened. I was angry with my wife because somehow I felt she could have prevented it. My wife had actually done everything she could have done to prevent it but the incident occured when she turned her back and my daughter willfully disobeyed my wife and broke her arm as a result.

If a parent starts hollering at me from the field, I will walk as far away as possible. Addressing a frustrated parent will only escalate the incident. If it continues, I would ask that game administration handle the situation. Usually coaches aren't in a real good position to help because the parents can be angry with them too. They also feel like parents when one of the kids they are charged with coaching gets hurt. If the yelling gets really bad, only then would I use a heavy-handed approach and tell the parent to direct her attention to her child or leave the field.