Taking my son out of the football team...because I hate talking him to matches?

[curtainsareon]

This is what my sister has just text me saying....
Her son loves football and is goalkeeper in a local team (he is 12)
Anyway she said over the summer holidays she's enjoyed not taking him to training and the football matches ...so has removed him from the team.

I'm honestly flabbergasted
Don't you think this is selfish ?
The one thing he enjoys
I haven't said anything because it would cause trouble
I just had to vent somewhere

Interestingly I've just been talking to someone about children's activities and when to stop etc

She told me that her Ds got dropped from the football team at 13yo. He was embarrassed and upset, so she told anyone who asked that she'd decided it took too much out of family time at the weekend so she'd stopped it. He was able to say that to his friends too.

She said all the people who told her how mean she was to prioritise her time at that point were the same ones who when he got into a youth training regime for a different sport said to her "isn't the time you spend on him unfair on your younger ones", even though it was taking far less of her time than the football was.

Can she not do a lift share with other parents? My DS plays in a team, and we take turns with others taking the boys to the matches. It works really well!

@EarthlyNightshade why would she lie? What would be the point?

I don't necessarily think that OP is lying but I do think it's possible that there could be more to it. Especially since it sounds like OP's sister is a single parent and also has another child to manage as well as her son.

Just a thought...are you sure it's not an excuse because she doesn't want to say she can't afford it perhaps? My ds football team membership cost me £35 a month...a bargain for what it was in all honesty but for some people, especially at the moment, they need an extra direct debit like a hole in the head.

As I said in a pp, if there are genuine reasons such as work or commitments with other kids then it's different. Most people here are reacting on the basis of her simply not being bothered. I can actually understand to an extent as it's incredibly time consuming, requires a lot of travel and isn't always the best fun in the winter. But you do these things for your kids and if she's pulled him from the team simply because she can't be bothered with it then that's wrong and unfair.

Obviously nobody except the mother in question knows her true motives.

She does, she does gymnastics and dance 2 evenings a week. It's 5 minutes from the house and 3 hours each time so I can drop her and go home so it's not as awful as the dreaded football runs.