Abusive Parents Are Spoiling Their Kids’ Sporting Events

This has been happening for years and it just seems to be getting worse. Parents at their children’s sporting events abuse the referees and are just rowdy and abusive towards not only the referees but other parents and players as well.

It’s ridiculous, and this Detroit Lakes cop has something to say about how these certain parents are “abandoning their kids.”

According to an inforum.com article, Detroit Lakes Police Sgt. Robert Strand was working at a Detroit Lakes bantam hockey tournament last weekend and witnessed firsthand certain parents getting out of control during the games.

On his way out Sgt. Strand was called back to the arena: “Sure enough, got called back to the arena because they said one of the parents started looking other parents in the eye,” Strand said.

While dealing with some troubled parents attending the games, a referee made a questionable phone call that caused further problems for the officer. “When I walk in I get a call for a man not breathing, reason unknown. Torn. Obviously this is a matter of life or death and I have unruly parents in here. Not a fun situation,” Strand said. “I said, ‘Look, I’ve got a guy who’s not breathing. I’m not there because I have to take care of you here,'” Strand said. “I told them with all my might, ‘Apparently you’ve forgotten how to be a spectator.'”

Terry Eiter of the Lakes Area Officials Association has heard it all before. It’s not the players, it’s the parents who don’t know how to behave. It can be embarrassing for a child when their parents act like idiots in the stands.

“Several times during a competition, a player will say, ‘Oh my god, that was a good call, ignore my dad up there,’ so they know what the parents are saying and it’s hurting them,” Eiter said.

“If you want to see chaos, go to a youth tournament. They let new officials who usually officiate these games know how they are feeling,” said Eiter of his experiences with parents while officiating games. “They insult her and say, ‘Yeah, I’m done. I’m not going to take that.’”

Sergeant Strand went to the medical emergency and when he was done there he had to return to the arena to escort the officials out. He had some very poignant words to say: “My generation as parents, we fail. We don’t teach the lessons we learned from our parents and we don’t pass them on to our children,” he said.

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