A Massachusetts mom got her 7-year old kid benched from his little league game when she missed her scheduled shift at the park’s concession stand.
Arlen Specter’s independent investigation is forthcoming.
From FOXNEWS.COM:
Jodi Hooper of Freetown said she was unable to fulfill her obligation at the concession stand because she couldn’t get time off from work, according to MyFOXBoston.
Dave Brouillette, head of the Freetown Youth Athletic Association, told MY FOX BOSTON that the concession revenues are necessary to fund the league’s programs and that he has to enforce the rules, which require parents show up for their assigned concession stand shifts or risk suspensions for their children.
I almost hate to side with The Man on this one, but the Think Of The Children card trumps the Working Mother Who Doesn’t Have Enough Time card. Like any team, everyone has to do their part, and if you let one parent off the hook, the whole system goes to pot.
And I have a hard time feeling sorry for a 7-year-old kid that probably has his name sealed onto the back of his t-shirt. Suck it up, kid. Now you’ll know what it’s like when you get busted for steroids 20 years from now.
10:14 am on May 16th, 2008
Pretty sad league if you have to force parents to work the concession stand. They need to do a better job of recruiting volunteers.
11:23 am on May 16th, 2008
Chester, its obvious to me you know absolutely nothing about little league, I was President of our local league for three years and the most difficult thing about it is dealing with the parents. I’ve had people laugh in my face when asked to work their 2 hour shift in the concession stand, during my oldest boys last year of little league, the only complete games I got to see of his were away games, why? Because of people not showing up to cover their duties in the concession stand, the concession stand is where you make the money you need to improve your league and to have the little extras like real bathrooms and not porta potties.
In our league, all we ask is for ONE parent of each kid, not both parents, to work one two hour shift all season long, although if we hosted many all star games they could’ve been asked to work a second. One two hour shift, thats it. But, everyday you hear the same excuse, we don’t want to miss our kids game, whine, whine, whine. Well, I wish I could’ve seen half my kids games his last year and I will regret it for the rest of my life that I didn’t have a similar policy as this one, I always erred on the kids side, sucked it up and worked it for their parents.
If you really want to piss me off, walk up to me and whine about having to miss one of your kids games….
2:50 pm on May 16th, 2008
In a way, I see the league’s point, but with the economy what is is, how many parents are going to have this same issue?
The kid was punished because his Mom was put in a bad spot that she had little control over. And couldn’t anyone else volunteer to “switch spots” with her or something?
I guess it could be worse, they could be starting bleacher clearing brawls in a drunken act of lunacy. right Dave?
http://www.wrestlingbeltworld.com
8:41 pm on May 16th, 2008
Jimmy, I am a coach (5 years) and my mother used to run the consession stand when I was a kid. So I completely understand the challenges of parents and their situations. In those 5 years of coaching, our league has never required parents to work in the consession stand. There is a board member who is assigned that role and she finds people who work our 2 consession stands.
Our league put new grass on all 9 of it’s fields this past off season and has a wonderful facility that is 20 years old and the league couldn’t be run smoother, (although a couple of people could go jump in a lake)
My point is, It can be done without forcing parents to work. Maybe we just have a willing community to help out.
Hope things work our for your league as well.
10:22 am on May 19th, 2008
Chester,
My apologies then, as you can tell this is a hot point for me as I don’t think asking one parent of each kid to work a two hour shift one time during the whole season is too much to ask, especially when the rest of us are burning vacation days, sneaking out of work early, etc, to make sure this stuff gets done.
I am curious though, do you all pay the concession stand workers, as I don’t see how its possible to find people to work two concession stands all year long for free if they don’t have kids playing there. Sounds like your league is at least double the size of ours, just going by the number of fields. We do have one of the best little, little leagues around, IMO, sending teams to the State playoffs three times in the past several years. I am proud of our league, but it could be so much better if parents would just work their ONE shift for the season.