Children should experience this ...

Yes, the entertainment folks dress up in character and maybe one or two others in news join them (nobody in sports). They don't necessarily dress up for the movies that are out that year but just in general. Really, it is quite cool.

What the hell, some guys wear their sports jerseys three times a week to work, so why not let them have their Oscar fun one night a year.

Wasn't that way at a previous gig, though. Everyone in sports had to at least wear a collared shirt. One paper I worked at you had to wear a tie Labor Day through Memorial Day but not in the summer. Some folks were even asked to go home and get a tie and the managing editor used to keep extra ties for those who didn't have one. I am not making this up.

 

And why would you be? It's a g#*#* d#*@*(# professional office.

 

I had zero problem with wearing a tie and actually miss it some times at my current job, so I do wear one, just not every day.

I also have zero problem with 7 entertainment folks dressing up on Oscar night (just one night) and I have zero problem with the guy who had the menorah.
They were being unprofessional as well I guess.

The principal who won't allow pumpkins, just pumpkins not even Jack-o-lanterns at a "Harvest Night" is equally unprofessional in my book.

 

When we played years ago the coaches brought bats and balls, and all we had to bring was our glove and desire.

As we got older we started getting our own bats.

Today, kids have roller bags half the size of PGA Tour golf bags filled with $450 hybrid bats (that break in cold weather), backup bats, the bat from two years ago just in case, 19 batting gloves, an extra glove, first base glove and other shit.

An 11-year old who could carry all that on a bike and not be hunched over like a Nepal sherpa gets a tip o' the pint from me.

 

Between ages 10 and 12 I rode my bike from home to the local college to watch their baseball team work out. They let me pick up bats and shag flies, and a couple of players would occasionally throw bp to me.

As a parent, I've been too freaked out by the possibility of abduction to allow my kids to do anything like that. No college in my current town, which has a different atmosphere than the one I grew up in.

 

Just to spite Dick Whitman and his wife, I'm going to send my daughter to school dressed as Frankenstein every day but Halloween.

 

As I said, I understand the issue of highways and high-traffic roadways. That's kind of beside the point. I don't advocate letting 9 year olds ride bikes across the interstate, but there are other ways to let them experience the same thing without recreate the extact details of riding your bike to baseball practice. It's the loss of the journey in question, not the destination.

As for too much equipment, that is also at the discretion of the parents.



Also, I enjoy Halloween. I always have.
However, there's no need to wear a costume to school.
And there's no need for 'crazy-hair day,' whatever that is.

 

Buck,

You get an invitation to my Scrooge party as well.

I guess you'd be opposed to popcorn Fridays once a month, too.

Crazy Hair Day: Wear seven ponytails if you want and color your hair purple or look like you stick your fingers in an outlet.
It's one day a year and these are K-5 grade students we are talking about. Lighten up folks.

 

In every league I've ever been involved in, each child is required to bring a bat, helmet and water bottle (or whatever corresponding equipment comes into play for that particular sport). I suppose it's the discretion of the parents to be in the league or not, but good luck finding one that doesn't require you to carry your own.

 

Yes, all the kids in our league also need to have a bat, helmet and usually batting gloves (although not a requirement). They get to keep the team hat but jerseys have to be returned.

Any volunteer parent, even for preseason practice, has to have a background check and wear a signed card with a photo ID at all times they are on the field or in dugout or working the concession stand or grounds.

On the other hand, my son plays soccer in a street in our neighborhood with no goals and they make up the rules. And parents join in and sometimes kids as young as 4 and as old as 17 are playing at the same time.

Can you imagine?

Oh, and one time a kid skinned his knee and had to get a Band-Aid and no forms had to filled out or nurses called and we didn't even have to call his parents or legal guardian. Good grief we must be crazy people, huh, to let kids in different age groups play in a street with no regulation field or goals and only one scuffed up soccer ball?

 

Parents/adults run the leagues. They set the rules.

 

Yes in our case Little League sets the rules and they are strictly enforced.

But in the neighborhood soccer game, the kids set the rules and no one cares if they are strictly enforced.