I went to another softball game to see one of my grand daughters play tonight. As I currently have 4 grand daughters playing various levels of softball with 2 in a T-ball league, 1 in a coach pitch league and 1 in the 11 and 12 age division, I have no trouble finding a game to attend on one of several nights during the week. These grands are playing in 2 different town leagues and therefore, I have the opportunity to travel to several different games and towns to watch these games. Like tonight, I had the choice to see games in 2 places so I chose the one closest to home and am planning to see the others play a couple of nights from now

Going to these games over the last few years, I am amazed at the numbers of parents who are all in when it comes to their children playing ball. They have them in leagues at the local level and many also have their children playing “travel ball” all over the southeast on the weekends in softball for girls and baseball for boys. Some of these parents with both boys and girls of the age to play these sports have a son (or sons) and a daughter (or daughters) playing on different travel teams which requires one or both parents to be on the road each weekend going to some tournament or other with their children.  Knowing this and seeing the time spent in this endeavor, I guess I am glad that my own daughters never really expressed a desire to play softball though I did get to travel with them plenty enough when they were cheerleaders in school.

This also caused me to think back to my own childhood when things were so much different in the entire world than today. Our little league experiences consisted of 4 teams in the little community of Bonifay who played each other about 4 times during the season for a total of 12 games during the months of June and July when school was out. At the end of the season, the team with the best overall record was declared the champs and we went on about our business of being kids. Not too sure that this may not still be a good idea for the kids and the parents today.