Who complains more -- fathers or mothers?

[Mr. X]

I received an e-mail today from a father alleging a mistake in coverage. This is the first time I remember getting a complaint from a father and I've been at this job for 7 1/2 years.

I would be interested in hearing what your ratio is on complaints from mothers versus fathers.

My gut feeling is that in general, fathers are much busier with their work and don't have time to complain, unlike mothers, who are less likely to work outside the house.

 

[Cadet]

In my experience, fathers are more likely to raise a fuss about their daughters and mothers are more likely to do so for sons.

Perhaps not complaining to newspapers, but with complaints to coaches and administrators, definitely.

 

[beefncheddar]

Moms, in a landslide.

 

[Ace]

Moms. By 3-1 at least.

 

[Taylee]

Pretty even here, but the mothers sure spew more venom.

 

[SF_Express]

In my experience, Mom fans, and male coaches.

 

[Bob Slydell]

Moms way more. I've actually had a real good experience with most fathers. Mothers on the other hand...

 

[zeke12]

Mothers, somewhere between 2-1 and 3-1.

 

[SoSueMe]

Pretty even in my experiences.

Had a father last year that was the all-time worst.

Covered a meaningless mid-season high school football game where the score was something like 63-14 and I took an "player feature" angle for the story 'cause it was a blowout. Anyway, at the end of gamers I do a little Extra Points thing where I wrap up how the teams scored and I missed one of his son's punt returns for a touchdown (although I mentioned his kid's catch for a TD) and the dad went bananas on the phone.

I wasn't doing the kids justice. They want to see their names in the paper. It was shoddy journalism. Unprofessional. On and on.

After he calmed down I politely reminded him of the ****ING FEATURE I WROTE ON HIS KID THE WEEK BEFORE!

Silence.

Thank you. Good bye.

 

[HejiraHenry]

Pretty even here, but the mothers sure spew more venom.

Indeed, some of the most venomous (anonymous) calls I get are from females.

 

[slappy4428]

Moms. Close the hymnals, Mass is over.

 

[KG]

My gut feeling is that in general, fathers are much busier with their work and don't have time to complain, unlike mothers, who are less likely to work outside the house.

Is that really fair? Maybe it's just me, or even this area where I live, but I was under the assumption that stay-at-home moms was a fading way of life.

Then again, for the ones that do stay at home while the father is too busy with his work to have time to complain, maybe the fathers are clueless to what's going on, while the mothers are always there.

Either way, it doesn't justify stupid complaints.

 

[MilanWall]

Around here, most of the complaints are from grandparents.

 

[Captain_Kirk]

My gut feeling is that in general, fathers are much busier with their work and don't have time to complain, unlike mothers, who are less likely to work outside the house.

Is that really fair? Maybe it's just me, or even this area where I live, but I was under the assumption that stay-at-home moms was a fading way of life.

Then again, for the ones that do stay at home while the father is too busy with his work to have time to complain, maybe the fathers are clueless to what's going on, while the mothers are always there.

Either way, it doesn't justify stupid complaints.

I'm surprised it took this long to call out that comment.

Perhaps the X Man didn't intend it that way, but it comes across like a guy who car pools to work with Ward Cleaver in his De Soto.

 

[expendable]

Mothers by a long shot, but I did have this one time where a mother called up and two minutes later, put her husband on the phone. I hung up and said, "I just got tag-teamed by Hawk and Animal."

 

[pressmurphy]

It used to be fathers by a wide margin. Then we installed a "moms-only" complaint hotline and dropped coverage of wrestling and boys gymnastics to comply with Title IX.

Now it's 50/50.

 

[SF_Express]

To be fair to Mr. X, obviously all fathers don't work and all moms don't stay at home, but more moms stay at home than fathers. I don't think that's a negative stereotype.

Then there's the whole "soccer mom" thing and, rightly or wrongly, certainly moms get a lot of the work driving kids to games and staying to watch or whatever.

 

[Mr. X]

What I should have written was, "women are more likely than men NOT to work outside the home, thus giving them more time then men to complain about high school sports coverage." I just wrote this too quickly.

 

[KG]

What I should have written was, "women are more likely than men NOT to work outside the home, thus giving them more time then men to complain about high school sports coverage." I just wrote this too quickly.

That's ok, my initial reaction was to say that women are more ballsy than men when it comes to speaking their mind or standing up for something they believe in. But really, that's just my hot-headed, biased opinion.

 

[Platyrhynchos]

Moms.
Had one rip me up one side and down the other once for not covering their school (read, her son) enough and with regularity.
Thing is the kid isn't even hers. The father and biological mother divorced, and she married the father when the kid was a freshman.