[Griff]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Then she'll *edit for content* break his heart, and fire him.

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

Man, that sucks. At least this kid isn't in her class at school where he could subtly harass her every single day. Are there other nicer families at these events that you could maybe pointedly hang out with? I bet if you were always engaged in conversation with other women especially, they would be uninterested in joining.

We can stay away during tourneys but we have such a small club that we'll always have a lot of contact. On the upside she's learning a lot about how other families operate and I got to give my always look at how a son treats his mother speech. We're going to hit a couple tourneys they can't because of age/gender restrictions so we don't get automatically linked to them because of club name. It's funny you mentioned talking to women because he did keep his distance while I was talking to a couple Moms.

Originally Posted by Aliantha

I also believe there's competition and there's poor sporstmanship. The latter is the thing which bothers me.

Anyway, we've stopped associating with the families who I don't feel offer the best examples to the kids although because it's unavoidable at practice and game days, the kids still get to learn about what not to do, so I guess that's good in a way.

I was thinking that I was being a little rough on them as they do have other better qualities but sportsmanship isn't one of them. The son actually pretended he was bumped in a cor a cor and was awarded a touch. I'm afraid they will eventually reap what they sow, I've noticed he gets hassled a lot more on equipment by bout directors who he's p.o.ed by arguing inappropriately. He's also been abusing his inhaler as a way to slow down matches when he's out of breathe from being out of shape not from an asthma attack. I saw a girl have a real asthma attack and lose 6 quick touches, so I see why a director would be lenient.

Fortunately, we see a lot more good sportsmanship than bad at these events. One woman my daughter fenced with told the scorer when my daughter wasn't given a touch the director had called even though it was a close bout. I had a cool conversation with two moms who were saying nice things about my kid even though (maybe because) she beat one of their teenage sons. The older fencers really want to teach the younger ones, because there is a sense of continuity almost immortality in the sport, when you pass on what you've learned. There are two old guys who've been barbing each other good naturedly, ever since my 12 yo girl beat one of them. Now the guy who lost has been trying to engineer a bout between the other old man and her. funny stuff. Thank you all for the kind words and thoughts.