It is not uncommon at our Lions’ Club Bunnings BBQ on a Saturday to meet many parents with their children regaled in sports attire, lining up for a sausage sizzle and recounting sporting outcomes from hours before (“Plea to kick out the ‘ugly’ parents”, DT, 9/7). None seemed to be suffering from the “ugly parent syndrome” coined by researcher Dr Judith Locke to describe angry behaviour on the sidelines at kids’ sport. I suppose parents’ expectations might be high for some serious commitment from their children when spending a fortune on player registration, shoes, uniforms, ferrying backwards and forwards to training and weekend games, while managing other competing cost of living pressures. Perhaps some are overly enthusiastic in their encouragement, lamenting their own childhood failures. One might spare a moment for kids from broken or dysfunctional families with no one cheering them on, either on the sports fields or classrooms of our city. Dr Locke might do well to understand the mechanics of sideline misbehaviour before applying her unkind labels of “ugliness”. Sport might be more fun for parents if it wasn’t so costly. Alan Sexton, North Parramatta 10July2025
