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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   25254 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 17, 2025

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Now of course, the ideal is probably somewhere in the middle. Kids can be on a school team or in a once-a-week organized league while also playing pick-up after school every day, and a kid that really loves basketball might want to spend hours practicing free throws or dribbling drills on his own even when nobody else wants to. Leagues help to build skill and love for the game, encouraging kids to later move on to self-organizing.

The other option is all of them maxed. My son is currently on two hockey teams plus football. Travel lacrosse just ended for the winter and his two basketball teams start up in a couple weeks.

He still does a few hours of pick-up basketball, two-hand touch or soccer after school, before football most days. On days off, he and 2-10 of the boys will meet up at one of the fields in our town or the next one (which they reach on their bikes) for free play or small pickup games that sometimes last 6+ hours. It's like The Sandlot, except he has a phone to call and ask me if he can DoorDash Wawa because he forgot to bring water. (The answer, of course, is no.) On top of that, they organize their own leagues (including the use of decently sophisticated stat-tracking software) for schoolyard soccer or baseball field wiffleball.

AND he has his own basketball hoop, hockey net, and lacrosse rebounder in the backyard when he wants to burn off some energy or has a friend over.

When every kid has an Xbox, they all vegetate at home.

And then after all the boys finally go home, they hop on a group voice call for "Chel", which is NHL 2025, or ignore the Xbox to play Roblox sports leagues.

My point isn't just to brag (just mostly), but to say that @FiveHourMarathon is completely right about everything in this excellent post, and that killing it in these circumstances is still very viable, and also it really helps to have involved grandparents to help with carpooling.

I hope that your son's immense noble characteristics are soon recognized.

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