Sports activities on sundays

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I have 3 children and my oldest child is active in a traveling basketball team during the spring they play around games from jan-mar sometimes (BUT RARELY) we have had practice or a game on a sunday. I have a catholic friend who says that is not appropriate activity for a sunday. I am confused how spending a day as a family but at a basketball game is harmful. We always do our sunday obligation before. This friend of mine go round and round about and am just looking for more information. She says that we are not building relationships with our children by doing. Because we are not communicating with each other. I would think that everyday of the week we should be building relationships and communicating with our children. I could go on and on but a little feed back would be great
 
I see nothing wrong with it. You stated you are attending mass. Your friend made her feelings known, she doesn’t need to continually push the issue and it isn’t her place to do so. It is not up to her to decide how to run your family.

You can have a very fulfilling Sunday as a family at a sports event or any organized activity for that matter. I am sure there are many families that don’t have something planned on Sundays like you and simply go back home to do isolated activities (video games, tv, reading, etc) which is worse than if you spent half the day at a tournament or activity.

Relationships with children can be fostered in many contexts. Your friend should be a bit more open minded…just because something isn’t exactly how she thinks it should be, doesn’t mean it is wrong.
 
That’s why Saturday evening masses are so great!

There is nothing wrong here. Keep it up.
 
Keep up the good family time!
If Mass is made a priority - meaning all other activities take second place - then there is certainly not anything wrong with enjoying good, wholesome, family fun.

Our Catholic Youth League games were always on Sunday afternoons… perfectly timed for attendance at EITHER morning Mass or evening Mass. Game times were always adjusted for Religious Education events as well…

Go have fun. 🙂
 
My kids have been involved in sports for years and my son especially (he plays for both high school and travel soccer teams). If the sports draw you away from each other, cause you to miss Mass and become the reason for Sunday then the sports have to go.

If the sports bring you together, are worked around Mass (and not vice-versa) and are one of the things your family enjoys on a Sunday, they can stay.

I’ll share myself: We (the whole family) are on our way to Virgina Beach this weekend for a tournament. There is at least one game on Sunday and my family knows that we will attend Mass either Saturday evening or on Sunday. If on Sunday and the only Mass we can get to is at game time, Mass comes first, even if it costs my son his starting spot that game.

Your friend is entitled to their opinion and you are entitled to yours.
 
Em_in_FL said:
Keep up the good family time!
If Mass is made a priority - meaning all other activities take second place - then there is certainly not anything wrong with enjoying good, wholesome, family fun.

Our Catholic Youth League games were always on Sunday afternoons… perfectly timed for attendance at EITHER morning Mass or evening Mass. Game times were always adjusted for Religious Education events as well…

Go have fun. 🙂
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I used to be a referee for a Catholic youth sports league throughout high school. Games were on Sunday afternoons (and some week nights).
 
enter the dissenter:

take your pick:

historic: until the last generation (from whence came my oldest kids) a catholic sports league would NEVER consider playing on sundays.

judgmental: if catholic families can’t find another time to “be together” than sundays at court side, then perhaps their lives are overscheduled and their priorities are tilted.

**
experiental: **we moved our catechism program to sundays in hopes ***that ***would be sacrosanct-- the sports-free zone. guess how many weeks in a row dozens of those catholic kids left at half-class because their dads came in announcing. “we have a game.”

**stories from the old school: ** i went to a catholic all girls high school (graduated 1980,) which had the state number one basketball team for several years running. they NEVER played on sundays, nor did any team in the league.
**
more-than-annoyed: ** last year, the basketball coach said to me, Maybe next year you can check with our schedule before you plan extra activities. I said to him, “you gotta be kidding me. maybe next year you should check with the activities schedule before you plan your games.”
 
cathmom10 said:
I have 3 children and my oldest child is active in a traveling basketball team during the spring they play around games from jan-mar sometimes (BUT RARELY) we have had practice or a game on a sunday. I have a catholic friend who says that is not appropriate activity for a sunday. I am confused how spending a day as a family but at a basketball game is harmful. We always do our sunday obligation before. This friend of mine go round and round about and am just looking for more information. She says that we are not building relationships with our children by doing. Because we are not communicating with each other. I would think that everyday of the week we should be building relationships and communicating with our children. I could go on and on but a little feed back would be great
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*Does your friend live with you…how does she know you are not building relationships with your kids? :mad: Siiigh.

That said, on the one hand, I see nothing wrong with the occasional game played on a Sunday, if it doesn’t interfere with mass…on the other, I see where monica is coming from. I think the ‘‘world’’ just looks at Sunday as any other day on the calendar, unfortunately. I would tell your friend though, that you appreciate her concern, but you’re a good mom, and would appreciate her butting out. :o*
 
i have 6 children. we used to participate in soccer and basketball on our catholic school teams. i hated it that every sunday we had to hurry off to games and never got to have a ‘day off’ from everything else the 8 of us did the rest of the week. it was very difficult to get the whole family to Mass and then to all the games and tournaments – the younger kids got dragged along and it was hard on them especially when the weather was too hot or too cold, the older kids who had projects and books they wanted to read or who just wanted some calm at home time could never count on a day at home. it was always rush, rush, rush on sundays in season. we quit all that craziness. again we could go biking as a family, find time to watch a good movie together as a family, relax over a good meal together. i really hate that sundays are just seen as a day to add to the craziness instead of a day of rest. yes, we enjoy watching our children in concerts, track meets, sports games, etc. but a day of relaxing together, for this family, is not a day running from field to field trying to catch part of each child’s game. for our catholic school, to which i will no longer send my children, sports is really given more focus and importance than God.
 
cathmom10 said:
I have 3 children and my oldest child is active in a traveling basketball team during the spring they play around games from jan-mar sometimes (BUT RARELY) we have had practice or a game on a sunday. I have a catholic friend who says that is not appropriate activity for a sunday. I am confused how spending a day as a family but at a basketball game is harmful. We always do our sunday obligation before. This friend of mine go round and round about and am just looking for more information. She says that we are not building relationships with our children by doing. Because we are not communicating with each other. I would think that everyday of the week we should be building relationships and communicating with our children. I could go on and on but a little feed back would be great
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As long as you are fulfilling your sunday obligation I don’t see the problem
 
I believe that the words “The sabbath was made for man,* Not* man for the sabbath” from Mark 2:27 are appropriate for this situation.

It is a strange sense of values which would deny fun family activities on a certain day of the week.
 
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