Youth coaches - ever coach your own kids?

I coached all my kids, football soccer baseball basketball. Probably every dad who's ever coached was slightly harder on his own kid than the rest of the team. That's the parent a-hole in you taking over the coach for a bit.

Yep. Coached my son he flag league and then became his kicking coach from jr high through HS, where he became all-parish and all-district.

He is currently pondering two college offers and trying to decide if he is hanging up the cleats for other endeavors or to keep blasting balls through uprights.

I’m gonna miss the past several years

Many people, including myself, regret not going atleast for a short period of time. Tell him to give it a go for atleast one season and get a taste.

I coached my sons first soccer team in spring and work obligations prevented me from doing so this fall. This nerdy Christian camp counselor type couple took over and the same kids went from having fun, learning the game, and playing well to getting throttled every game and not really participating. It was hard to watch these two struggle to get the kids to play, And harder to watch my son regress, but I never got in their way.

I had the privilege to coach my son in football from pre-k through 6th grade. We were very fortunate that we had a great team and great parents and most of those kids played every sport (football, basketball & travel baseball) together and are still best friends today even though most of them are freshmen at different colleges now.

I told my son that I had to make an example of him and I would be harder on him than anyone else, especially since he was our QB. He was fine with it and understood. I really miss those days. He turned out to be a great player and was an all-district DB at a 6A school in Texas.

coached my son from 5-12 in baseball. Wouldn't give up those days for anything - my son still calls me "Coach" on occasion as a fun little thing he does.

Watched in the stands for high school and college as a proud parent.

I’ve coached my sons and daughters. Either as head or assistant. Hell, I helped coach volleyball and had absolutely no idea what the rules were. A lot of little kids in the 5-10 age group don’t have someone at home working with them and it’s evident at practice. I’m a little more focused on them and expect more out of my kids because we do work at home. I don’t ride them, just remind them that I know what they know. I also try real damn hard to make it fun - always.

I've been coaching my son's (and a previous stepson) in little league baseball since 2007.

19 teams. About 260 games. Over 500 practices or so.

I love it.

It's natural for us to expect more from our own kids, but... we have to know who they are.

If they aren't one of the better players on the team, that's ok. Be comfortable with their contribution as long as you're getting good effort. They are who they are.

The best route to go is - the coaches all agree to coach the other coaches kids during practices. I coach his kid. He coaches mine. This way, you can ask - "what were you and coach so-and-so working on?" This keeps the animosity down between you and your son and keeps it from being 24-7.

I’ve always made it a point to allow my co-coach to Coach my child & I would coach their child. Helped with not be too hard.

My wife and I have "had" to volunteer for many things, because NOBODY steps forward for shiat.

Soccer
Tee Ball
Flag Football
Soccer again
Cub Scouts
Boy Scouts
Room parent

I'll be honest. I can't stand it. I don't want to be a coach or a youth leader, but someone has to do it. The day I can hand it off, I'll be a happy man. Kids can be annoying, especially the older they get. Parents are irrational.

I had a parent come up to me and put his finger on my chest once. I am a large man, he was not. I had to use my ventriloquist ability to tell him to take his fricking hand off me without anyone but him hearing me. He came back to apologize later, but wow. He did this in front of 100 people or more. We had a dad drunk email a group once with some nasty, horrible, stuff.

That being said, spending time with my kids, and seeing how proud it makes them for "their dad" or "their mom" to be there, makes it worth it. I think, I hope, it embeds in them the importance of stepping up when necessary. Scouts has been tough for me, it takes so much time, but we have been camping dozens of times, had some amazing trips, and they've learned so much and made great friends. It's part of being a parent.