# Parents: Would you do this?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-would-you-do-this/509739
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [September 11, 2009, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-would-you-do-this/509739 "2009-09-11T21:46:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2009, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-would-you-do-this/509739/61 "2009-09-14T18:18:57Z")
> [@BigT](#):
>
> Am I the only person who can’t understand how she didn’t know about the game ahead of time?
This is the first game at a new school, and school just started. Things usually don’t settle down for anything school-related for a couple of weeks – that’s just the nature of the beast. Even if this particular school (and team) had its shit together, the school they were tentatively scheduled to play might not have. And there are many, many ways in which school-to-parent communications get screwed up, especially for parents new to the school.
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### Author:  [@Brynda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynda)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2009, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-would-you-do-this/509739/62 "2009-09-15T02:05:32Z")
**MandaJO** , you are on the right track. This movie wasn’t a test for me as much as it was a mirror. I knew it would be emotional. She and I had both read the book and talked about it. She was the first one to suggest seeing it together. It was just one of those movies, you know? If it had been another movie I wouldn’t have minded it.
I do go see movied by myself, btw. First movie I saw after Rick died I saw by myself.
**Diogenes the Cynic** , I get that you pride yourself on acting like a jerk, but please be a jerk who at least reads the whole thread.
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### Author:  [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2009, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-would-you-do-this/509739/63 "2009-09-15T05:10:34Z")
> [@BigT](#):
>
> Am I the only person who can’t understand how she didn’t know about the game ahead of time? Am I also the only person who thinks it sends a bad example to the kid to finagle one’s way out of a commitment? Is it not a part of teaching kids that they are the entitled elite?
>
> Now, I might try to get out of it, if my friend would let me. But, for me, my word is my word. I wouldn’t have agreed to go with you if I wasn’t absolutely sure there was nothing else that I needed to attend. And if baseball is that important to my kid, I’d know ahead of time all the games (It’s not like the schedule is a secret). And I’m not going to be so careless to make a commitment during those times.
>
> Of course, it doesn’t surprise me that the majority of people don’t share my values.
I don’t get the sense that the friend was trying to “finagle” her way out of anything. It was a real and genuine conflict for her.
Answering the OP - for me its a bit of a wash, the kid is 14 so old enough to understand the issue and why mum can’t be there (BTW - What about dad? It shouldn’t need both parents right?) but balancing that its the first game at a new school.
I don’t and won’t feel the need to attend every single little event in my daughters life, even now when she is five and its much more important to her, but I probably would have attended the game. Mind you - I would have invited you to come with me and gone out for dinner and the later showing of the movie afterwards.
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