Politicing for kid to be selected on a certain team...

I've done it for several years but it's always tough and you feel the pressure at work. I always envied guys who seemed to be able to be at games or practices no matter when.

 

"our society today"

We have more time for stuff like that than ever, ever before. When was this idyllic time where parents had more time to coach little league?

 

One thing we did do was have a veteran coach, a guy who played in the minor leagues, and really knew baseball and had coached at various levels over the years, come out and have sort of a "coaching" clinic for any volunteer interested in learning some pointers. We - the organization -- paid the guy like $200 or something like that and he spent like three hours talking, demonstrating, teaching -- it was very well received and actually helpful to some of the parents who wanted to coach but didn't have a background in baseball so we're probably going to do it every year.

 

Oh I don't know, my dad was home at 4:30 every day and my mom stayed at home and while we weren't rich, we had a very nice life.

People don't do that any more and really it is hard. You are expected to work longer hours, you need a second income and that is just a way of life for us now.

 

Well, I'll weigh your personal anecdote against the piles of evidence that show average leisure time increasing.

Hmm, it's not quite measuring up.

 

I know, I know, I am making this up to, people don't work longer hours than they used to and two-income families are not more common than they used to be..... :

http://ohioline.osu.edu/flm01/FS20.html

"The National Study of the Changing Workforce, conducted by the Families and Work Institute in 1997 found that jobs have changed over the past twenty years. They consume more energy, are more unpredictable, and require longer hours. In fact, compared to the 1960s, the average worker now spends about six extra 40-hour weeks per year on the job. These increased demands have made managing work and family more difficult for all, including working parents. Work and family balance used to be considered primarily a woman's issue, but men are just as likely to have difficulty managing work and family demands. "

 

That's a great idea. I know our organization has a clinic every year but it's geared more towards kids than coaches. There are loads of new Canadians in my neck of the woods and their kids have no idea about baseball.

 

Your site does a very poor job of proving its point. It makes the assertions, but I'm not seeing a whole lot of evidence.

Try this one on for size:

http://www.heritage.org/Research/Labor/wm1596.cfm

 

No, really that's a lot of leaps of logic needed to make your numbers add up. They are saying that women work 11 hours less per week because the have now entered the work force and thus spend less time working on things at home?

I see, so I suppose that everyone has a nanny now and things don't need to get done around the house?

 

Could be that. Or it could be that we have a shit-ton (I'm trying to get that word into every conversation I can today) of new appliances to help out.

Remember, Zag, scientists are all dishonest liars who are out to get you.

 

Or it could be that we'll have to agree to disagree, as these two economists, including one which was involved in your study, do in this well researched article about what those results of those studies actually mean.

In other words, it is all in the interpretations -- or better yet, the premise with which a person undertaking the study set out to prove, which is why, yep, most of these studies are biased and not credible and subject to various interpretations....

Can we leave it at that?

 

Hey, I understand the encouragement to coach. I just did not want to do flag football because it would take time in the fall.

After having coached basketball and baseball the past two years for both of my boys' respective teams, I decided to go in a different direction, I volunteered for my boys'......PTA Executive Board. I just thought I would try to show the kids that I was not only interested in their sporting endeavors but also their academic setting. Its different, predictably a heavy female influence, but still its a worthy cause.