Youth sports parents: if you sign your kid up to play, do your kid, their teammates, and every other team parent a favor and make sure they show up.

Signing them up and then treating attendance as optional doesn't help anyone, and it's arguably hurting your own kid most of all. It teaches them that commitment only counts when they feel like it or when it's convenient. Meanwhile, they're missing out on learning responsibility, accountability, and teamwork, and they never absorb the most basic lesson of all: practice is how you get better.

It also sends a message to the kids who do show up. Whether you mean to or not, you're telling them they don't matter, or that they rank below whatever today's excuse happens to be. They end up working twice as hard to cover for an empty spot, and when it's game day, you've left them hanging when they needed everyone there.

Your kid made a commitment to a team. Help them keep it.