The conversation about youth sports has made it to reality TV.
On Instagram and TikTok, in national magazines and at the drop-off and pickup lines, parents are locked into debates about the value of youth sports in America.
Does joining the local T-ball team still give kids and families the teamwork, athletic skills, friendships, community and physical activity it did back in the '90s? Who can afford the outrageous costs of equipment, teams and travel that have accrued, especially as private equity companies have taken over the industry? Is it too competitive? Are kids getting too injured? Does "specialization" matter? How many of these kids are going to go pro, anyway?
And now you can think about all those hard questions while also watching the
most extreme version of this world on Paramount+.
Produced by Kim Kardashian, "Team Moms: Baseball" (now streaming) is a new reality series in the style of "Dance Moms" and "Toddlers & Tiaras" − a focused look at the micro-culture of ultra-competitive youth baseball and the rich, dramatic and cat-fighting parents of the boys training like they're already in the MLB.
"Team Moms" is unremarkable as a TV show. Its characters, a collection of parents of tween and teen boys in an elite training program in Scottsdale, Arizona, are phony and tired, the same kind of reality TV villains and dullards we've seen in a hundred shows of this ilk.
Their drama is tangentially related to their sons' baseball passions − who gets playing time, who plays what position, which coach is showing favoritism or is being too hard on the kids − but the show is really about the misbehavior of too-rich and too-entitled adults. Swap the youth baseball theme for "Mormon Wives," "Southern Charm" or "Vanderpump" and you'll get a similar show.
But the remarkable part of "Team Moms" is that boys' baseball, a childhood pastime that used to involve sticks for bats and running out of the street when cars drove by, is suddenly ritzy, all-consuming and theatrical enough to sustain this kind of reality TV. And it encapsulates the complaints and criticisms everyday parents have when they're deciding to sign their kids up for fall sports.
Like everything in modern parenting, youth sports are a huge production and a far more difficult equation for moms and dads (mostly moms) than they were 10, 15 or 20 years ago. Parents are encouraged to enroll their children in soccer or baseball or football far younger than is developmentally appropriate, lest they get "left behind."
The costs of the activities, from equipment to uniforms to the teams themselves, have skyrocketed. By some estimates, parents can spend upwards of $1,000 a year on sports (and the number doubles or triples in high-income households). If you can't afford the fees upon fees, there's extreme guilt for not being able to provide your kid this seemingly vital childhood experience. As New York Magazine recently put it, it's a "pay to play" world. And the only people winning are the corporations making profit.
"Team Moms" is a small show only available on streaming that has arrived without much marketing fanfare or hype. It likely won't create a huge buzz, even for its outrageous moments (such as when one mom calls a child a profane slur). But it is worth pausing and thinking about the world we've created in which "Team Moms" can even exist.
What have we lost from childhood sports? How can we get it back? What does the current system serve? How do we serve ourselves as parents, and have grace for all families and kids?
Otherwise we'll just keep striking out, on TV and in real life.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Youth sports are broken. Reality TV and Kim Kardashian are cashing in.
