I’m pretty sure all parents want their children to do well. But I’m pretty sure most parents don’t think that entails making sure their children are doing well, and destroying whomever is foolish enough to get in their way.

Many parents across the nation would disagree with me there. Some parents think their children are different, that they’re special, and rules don’t apply to their children. These are the parents who become overly emotional at sporting events, who need to make sure their kid is winning, and who think that it’s acceptable to ruin lives on their children’s way to the top.

A group of parents in Castro Valley recently had the coach of Castro Valley High’s girls’ basketball team ousted from her position. It was not amid a controversy over corruption, nor abuse, nor general neglect. It was because they didn’t like the way the coach was playing their daughters, and they got lawyers to settle the score. Although they alleged the coach was being “vindictive” by not attending picture day and cutting practice early one day, I think it was because the parents wanted to see their daughter as the star of the team.

The coach, Nancy Nibarger, has been a teacher for 20 years, and was planning on being the head coach of the team for a third year. Now she is forced to coach the team with some assistance – in the form of a six-member panel that will decide who gets to be on the team this season. It will be made up of Nibarger, parents, community members, and assistant coaches.

Although the whole panel won’t be attending practices, an ombudsman will. Every practice.

That’s not the worst of parental dramatics. Some parents resort to violence rather than legal actions.

On Oct. 23, a Philadelphia father was charged with aggravated assault after he pulled a gun on his son’s football coach. Wayne Derkotch thought his son wasn’t getting enough time on the field, and proceeded to show the team of 6- and 7-year-olds that violence is, in fact, the answer.

This September in Stockton, Cory Petero, a 36-year-old assistant coach, was charged with one count of felony child abuse after he pushed a 13-year-old who blindsided his son in a soccer game. Although I understand that he wanted to defend his kid, a coach and parent should be teaching his children how to behave like adults, not like overzealous bodyguards.

All these events are leading me to believe that we, as our parents’ children, are not doing a good enough job raising our parents. We haven’t taught them that we can take care of ourselves, that we can fight our own battles, and that we can accept our own defeats.

Until such a time as our parents, and parents all across the country, can agree to act like grown-ups, they should be kept away from the sidelines. They can watch Little League games from a distance, from behind a fence, and they can fight out their anger amongst themselves. That way they won’t have to miss out on their children’s lives, and their kids’ teammates don’t have to play their games in fear. Because it’s not just that they are making themselves look like idiots when they get violent or become overly controlling, it’s that they are also teaching their children to do the same.