Being a father of two I have to agree. Our league runs from 6:30 to about 9:00-9:30 or so. A majority of kids should be home getting ready for bed before our league ends.

My wife and kids will sometimes stop by and say hi to my teammates and maybe watch me throw a few frames the first game. From the area designated for spectators not bowlers that is. After that it's home to eat and to bed for them while I enjoy a night out with my friends.

I watch it unfold every week. The kids who are there all night start where they should be behind the bowling area eating their bowling center food(or McDonalds they brought, would it kill them to buy something from the center???) and minding their own business but as the night goes on, they get tired and bored. That's when things start to go downhill. Running around, making noise, crying because they are tired and should have been in bed an hour or more ago.

I have no problems with wives who are there with their kids and control them in the center but that tends to be the exception more than the norm. I hate to discipline someones child but I will when I have to.

It's also frustrating that we couldn't find anyone to be our secretary this year when some of our bowlers wives show up every week. Pay them to do it, I have no problem with that. That way I don't have to listen to our secretary complain about how much work it is. I'm sure a lot of these ladies wouldn't mind making a few extra hundos since they are there taking up space anyway. I'd ask my wife to do it but she's at home putting my kids to bed so they can get a good nights sleep.



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Pleased to meet you. Hope you guessed my name.

My kid isn't old enough to be left alone yet in the center, but I will bring her to an early league in the future as long as she behaves and never sets foot outside the door.

My buddy on Fridays has brought his two boys thru out there childhood to the center. They both have some of there best friends who dont attend there school at the center on friday nights. It got to be fun when the oldest boy started to understand the game a little bit and was back there high fiving us when we had a good game going. Guess who he bowls with now as an adult?
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"Why don't you call me sometime.....when you have no class" ~~Rodney Dangerfield to Sally Kellerman, his college professor in Back to School ~~1986

Mike Craig - Storm Products Pro Shop staff -Columbus, OH

No problem with kids or wives, as long as they are behaved.

I never understood the desire to bring to the kids, or the rest of the family, but to each their own.

Our state has only been smoke-free for just about a year now, and it never ceased to amaze me how many people would bring their kids to the center, knowing that 80% of the people are smokers.  One year we had a couple bring in their newborn.  It was funny looking over and seeing the mother giving the baby a bottle, with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth and a beer in the other hand!  Even funnier to watch the baby spit out the pacifer onto the floor and have the parent pick it up and stick it back in their mouth!

I would say the only time it is really a problem is because the center is always full - 40 lanes, 5 people per team.  All tables have 4 seats, and there are just slightly more than 2 tables per pair of lanes (probably 45-50 tables total), so there really isn't enough seating for any "visitors."

Kids are only a problem when they start running around, weaving in and out between the tables and everybody standing around.  In our league that was only a problem until one of the kids ran into the secretary, who happened to be carrying a pitcher of beer.  Not sure what was said, but we don't see very many kids running around any more!

I have no problem with wives or girlfriends... Most of my team mates wives or girl friends were HOT...

But I can see the problem with little kids...Parents can only give them so much money to play the games...after that they can become an issue...

I remember one night when the other teams parents took their seats and their kids took all of our seats...So my team took all of their balls off the racks..

And when they went looking for them, we took their seats...

oh well


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jls