What I like to do when observing others.
As a bachelor degree holding, magna cum laude student of the introversion arts, I major in people watching. From malls to museums, from forests to forts, I love to observe people in their natural or unnatural habitats. Not only am I good at it, but it requires little effort to see people do whatever it takes to make complete idiots out of themselves. While I do that on a regular basis, it is nice to see that other people do it just as much as me, maybe even more, because I keep my mouth shut when observing people.
What is even more satisfying than people watching, is people judging. I especially love taking what people say and do when they think I’m not paying attention and extending those actions to what I judge they do and are like in the rest of their lives. I did a lot of sitting today while waiting for my son’s game and then watching his game and this was prime people judging material.
Here are just a few of my observations of people at a football game.
“There’s no way he’s a third grader, right?”
“Wow, that kid on the other team is even bigger than our son (who is essentially a foot taller and 50 lbs heavier than anyone on his team). Clearly, he is a fifth grader. Should we check his papers?”
“Wow, this field has four sprinkler drains right on the field that could cause sprained ankles. Do you think I could use the cameras filming the game for footage in my law suit against the city if I “accidentally” trip over one of those during the game when I’m protesting a call?”
“I think this ref is trying really hard to be an NFL ref. Do you see how well he is blowing these calls and trying to make himself the star of the game?”
See if you recognize any of these parents on the sidelines of your games.
It takes skill to get that through the right quadrant.
The Gatorade Bottle Squirter’s through the Helmet parents: They are constantly trying to keep their kid hydrated, because if they don’t, the kid will evaporate into sand before the game ends.
The Trainwreck that shows up halfway through the First Quarter: She forgot to give her kid his socks, so is helping him put them on. His kid’s name is being called, so she is frantically trying to put them on him, while yelling to the coaches that he is almost ready to go in. Then later, she is on the sidelines telling the kids to stand up right after the coach told them to take a knee. Starts calling plays for her kid and telling him to go in when none of the coaches have told him to go in. Etc.
The so many accessories you would think they would preparing to summit Mt. Everest: They have their chairs, their hats, their tent, their couch, their long lens camera, their big screen TV to see replays, their sleeping bags, their hiking gear, their king size bed….
The Wanna Be NFL Parent: They yell instructions to their kid from the sidelines about missing their assignment on “Brown Right Over 73 Chicago F arrow X curl” or their footwork was off when they ran the side curl route, fulling insisting that their kid not only know all that, but that they can hear every instruction they just barked out through the massive helmet that is half their body weight.
Did you spend enough time on the sign?
The ones that are so worried about the paper halftime sign that they haven’t watched one minute of the game: They spent half the week planning, preparing, making the artwork just right on the 40 foot paper sign that the kids will run through at halftime, that they didn’t have any time to make their kids lunch or help them with their homework, which would have been good for them because they misspelled Cougar’s.
The “No wonder they call me the team mom”: Because I brought a speaker that blasts an 80’s rap song from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to get my little guys all pumped for this third grade debacle.
The silent judgers: The ones that sit there the whole game judging all the other parents of their misdeeds while not recognizing that they are committing a bunch of the things above or worse, but not seeing it because they think they are so perfect.
ARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH
Bitter Observationer from The Sideline Ben
Ben's Bitter Blog 
you’re my favorite people judger. Imagine if we could people judge together. that would be epic.
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I know right? It would be an amazing talk show we would have if we could just sit out live in locations and just judge people in front of a live studio sidewalk.
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that would be the BEST
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The world needs that. When should a producer call us about that happening?
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Yesterday.
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Did you let them know my web address so they can get a hold of me?
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“Oh you think you know this better than me? I PLAYED [insert sport] in college”
“What do you know, you are [insert gender, age, race, experience] you know nothing”
“We pay you to win, not lose”
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Those are some good ones. I hear the old “I played in college thing, so blah, blah”. I played in 3rd grade, so I know how horrible it was to have a parent take it too seriously.
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I remember these parents from middle school! Oh, how horrible they are!
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Yeah, some of them are quite the worst. I haven’t quite worked hard enough at being a bad sports parent yet. I guess I’m too lazy.
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Ah, yes, people-watching. I do so like people-watching; you learn a lot from watching others and quite a few things that you wished you did not learn. Pubs and coffee shops are amongst the best places to do this as well. And some people come out with right drivel and ‘what the hell?’ moments. I’m thinking of starting to compile these in what I call ‘The Wednesday Club’. My job is to take notes for students at college and/or university who have learning or physical disabilities and one of my first classes consisted of a bunch of mainly 16 year-olds who came out with the most stupid, inane statements possible. This took place on a Wednesday, hence, The Wednesday Club. The more you know.
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That is true, but the best part about people watching is finding out something about them that you can judge them about.
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True, especially when you’re a cynical person. And I can be pretty cynical when I want to be.
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I don’t really think of myself as a cynic, though I do have cynic tendencies, I feel I’m more of a realist. I tend to see things how they are and just observe and report them.
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Over the past going-on-17 years of parenting, I’ve had lots of opportunities to watch (and try not to judge) sports parents — soccer parents, baseball parents, gymnastics parents, track and cross-country parents, academic team parents, and lately, dance moms (yes, they do exist IRL). I’m torn between wishing I could freely apply duct tape to the parents’ mouths so that the little athletes can focus on playing, and jotting down my observations so that I can turn these people into story characters for the world’s amusement. Not sure which is more harsh.
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I prefer judging them and exploiting all the characteristics to use as a book.
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I prefer to judge from the safety of my own home…or a bench at the mall.
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It is easier to judge from your couch for sure. But you get much bitter results if you do it from a place you are way uncomfortable, like outdoors, or in the public for instance.
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Sounds like the pigskin version of the soccer mom. Little league parents are horrible in all kid’s sports – baseball, soccer, whatever.
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I am kind of a bad football dad. I don’t do near enough interfering.
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I am sure the referees do not mind.
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Oh, how right you are – about all of them.
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I’m generally right about most things, Ellen. How is recovery going?
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