That is exactly the way it happens. And it starts at about age 7 now too. The typical conversation you hear among parents at a kid's game is about how they are going to get all their various kids to all their games that weekend.
Oh, and "playdates" aka, spending a weekend afternoon at a friend's house just having fun. Almost non-existent. Can't find anyone available. Everyone has a game or is traveling. You have children playing games half way across the country. Really?
Youth sports has become completely toxic.
The league here is full of lunatic parents living through their five year olds. You should see a tball game! It is the craziest thing I have seen in youth sports. They have All Stars for tball. They pay $200 to be on the all star team. The parents then have to pay gate entry fees at every park during tournaments. To watch tball. The fees are set by Cal Ripkin organization at $6 per person over 10. So for a family with just two adults attending a three day tball tournament , that is $36. Typically, they will play in five tournaments during the summer. They have to travel to most tournaments and pay for hotels and food. They practice at least four times a week. TBALL!!!
And I thought we were crazy when we started travel ball with a ten year old! (That was eight years ago. Two of the players from our team back then have scholarships to play at DivI schools. I think everyone else from that team burned out, injured themselves, or lost interest.)
A big problem I see in youth sports is that Sunday is not respected as a day for church attendance. We have certainly been guilty of skipping church in favor of baseball games. It was wrong.
you know what was fun southern rock? This past Memorial Day another Dad and his 7 year old son picked up his schoolmate friend (also 7) and met me and my boy (classmate/friend also 7) at the town’s baseball field.
We spent almost 2 hours in the morning doing BP, ground balls and base running.
It was a great way to start the day and it’s getting our boys needed practice for the upcoming season.
When we moved into our former neighborhood in the Summer of ‘87, we didn’t know any kids lived there until school opened in September. Then each afternoon, the corners near the bus stop were lined with station wagons (eventually SUVs) with Moms waiting to pick up kids to car them to soccer/swim/piano/violin/dance/whatever. ANYTHING but playing in the neighborhood. Often the kid started the day at swim practice at 5am! This is elementary school kids.
The parents’ mentality is that if Suzie or Johnny has the best training, develop high level skills, etc., s/he will win an athletic/music scholarship to XYZ University, relieving mom and dad of that tuition burden. I often wondered what would happen if they just put the extra $$$ into a scholarship fund. Typically, after 13 years the kids are burned out, most aren’t such stars that universities are pursuing them, and mom/dad are still stuck with the tuition bill. In the meanwhile, they’ve had NO real childhood. Sad.