I saw a friend yesterday and asked him what he had been doing.
“I’m coaching t-ball again in the 6 and under league,” he said.
“That sounds fun, how’s it going?” I asked.
“Well, the 6 and under league used to be the most fun age to coach, but the ability of the t-ballers has decreased so much since I began coaching 20 years ago that it has become just babysitting. 4 kids on one of my teams in the early 2000’s could regularly hit home runs, now I’m lucky to have one kid that can hit it out of the infield.”
“What do you think is the cause?” I asked.
“The problem is the parents. They don’t play with the kids anymore. They give them a screen to look at and then leave the kid alone. Let me ask you, when was the last time you saw kids playing ball in the front yard?”
I told him I didn’t think I’d ever seen kids playing ball in the front yard.
“Well there you go.”
I don’t know if this is true or if true what the cause is. But maybe the parents have to work so much to get by the last thing they want to do when they get off work is to play with the kids. Maybe just giving the kids a screen so the parents can go in the other room and look at their screen is the best option to unwind. I leave it here as a curiosity.