Play Ball

I signed my son up for baseball this year. He's in the youngest group and they have had one practice so far. He loves it. He can't wait until the next practice.
Back in February I filled the registration form out, made a copy of his birth certificate and wrote a modest check. This is all pretty standard stuff that we're all use to these days. We are constantly re-identifying ourselves and signing waivers that we agree to not hold anyone responsible for anything that can possibly go wrong.
So when I got to the bottom of the form and read a line that my child would not be able to participate without the signed parental agreement on the back of the form I was not surprised.
I get it. No one wants to get sued in case Owen Meany comes up to bat.
I was surprised though when I turned the page over to find that this was a parental behavior agreement.
There were about 15 numbered statements of parental expectations including, volunteering at the snack shack and picking the kids up on time.
Most of the points however, were a lengthy pledge that as a parent of a little league participant, you will not be a jerk. No swearing, drinking, coaching, booing, taunting, humiliating, etc.
I don't really want to work the snack shack and I'm often a couple minutes late. I do pledge though, that I will do my best to not start a fistfight in the bleachers.

Here's an example of one from the Little League website. I didn't save a copy of ours.