Crazy curling parents

Crazy curling parents

This week a pair of outrageous hockey fights involving minor hockey players and parents made front-page news across Canada.

Without going into all the gruesome details, there was a fight between parents of a Tweed Ontario Bantam team and a Six Nations Bantam team and it was captured on video here.

There was also a fight and video of a brawl between Midget teams in PEI, which occurred during the post-game medal ceremony, according to reports.

When I saw those two incidents I thought about when my son was younger. I steered him away from hockey and towards curling, mostly because of the minor hockey politics and baloney. There are some great people in minor hockey, but it has its share of bozos too.

The worst parent behaviour I have seen in junior curling is a couple overzealous parents who coached behind the glass and a couple catty comments. Otherwise, the difference from curling parents and hockey parents, at least from my observation, has been night and day in difference. Curling parents are fairly laid-back compared to hockey parents.

However, at least one person thinks differently. Here's an article in the Sudbury Star from Alan Arkilander who says that takes the behaviour of curling parents to task.

You can read it here.

I am not saying that curling parents are innocent, but I'm not really sure what Arkilander has seen to make his observation:

Even in curling, I have seen poor behaviour by parents, which led the Idylwylde Junior Section to publish a one-page letter about how to behave while their child is curling. Yes folks, even in curling I have seen parents living vicariously through their children, pushing them, spending whatever it takes to get them to the next level, and dwelling on each "bad shot" or loss.

I have seen these children being taught that a win is everything to be gained at any cost, never mind development and having fun.

Anyone have any comments? Has anyone else seen some crazy parent behaviour at curling rinks from parents?