The Glamorously Exhausting Life of a Middle School Sports Parent

Hello, sports fans! Welcome to the thrilling 2025 Fall Middle School sports season at the International School of Amsterdam. For those of you following along at home (which you must be if you made it this far), Alex is taking on both football (sorry, soccer) and cross country this year. What this means for us lucky parents:

• Three nights a week of practice. Thursdays are a special treat with both football and cross country, so every week Alex chooses which one to attend, scientifically determined by whichever sport has the next meet/match.

• Occasionally an extra weeknight for a game or meet, because apparently our calendar wasn’t full enough already.

• A game or meet every weekend, always outside of the Netherlands—because why just commute across town when you can cross borders?

• Endless laundry. Apparently uniforms are meant to be clean before each event. Who knew?

• And the ultimate puzzle: “How can we attend the maximum number of meets and matches when each sport is on a different continent, or at least feels like it?”

The good news: we’ve already survived two of the five weeks of sporting chaos.

Our season kickoff was a “quick” 4.5‑hour drive to Luxembourg for a cross country race. Yes, that’s nine hours of driving for approximately fifteen minutes of running, but...totally worth it! The conditions were great—several runners broke records, Alex ran beautifully, and our “driving-to-spectating endurance” got its first real test.

For cross country, the kids stay in a hotel. Mike and I, exercising excellent judgment, stayed at a different hotel. (After all, who doesn’t love the soundtrack of a hundred middle schoolers on a sugar high until midnight?) Apparently, the kids found a mall near their hotel and roamed it in small, feral packs. Coaches confirmed; parents wisely kept their distance.

The following weekend? Three football matches. In…wait for it... Luxembourg. Because once you’ve mastered nine hours of driving, why not do it again? So, back in the car we went. Friday night match vs Luxembourg, Saturday morning rematch vs Luxembourg, followed by a second Saturday match versus Waterloo. At least we got three games in exchange for the same nine hours of road time. That’s what I call a good use of time!

Football weekends come with a twist: players stay with host families. Alex lucked out with what he claims was one of the best—crepes for dinner and a lunch bag loaded with lots of Luxembourgian candy. It’s a great experience for the kids: not only do they get to play in new countries, but they also come home slightly more worldly and significantly more sugared up.

Unfortunately, Saturday’s games were mostly played in the rain, which added that authentic European football feel. It wasn’t too cold (mid to high 50s), just the kind of steady drizzle that soaks you from the knees down and tests your relationship with your waterproof gear. (Spoiler: Dutch rain jackets actually work. Now it might be time to invest in rain pants.)

The football teams travel with the girls’ volleyball teams, so between games we got to play the role of volleyball parents—indoors, warm, dry, and temporarily deaf from the shrieking. Tween girls bring an impressive energy level; by the end we needed ibuprofen and perhaps a brief silent retreat.

This is what they call "endurance parenting"

Despite it all, fall in Luxembourg and Belgium really is stunning. Rolling hills, trees just starting to turn—picturesque enough to almost make you forget the speed cameras and eternally damp socks. If you ever find yourself looking for a beautiful nine‑hour drive around this time of year, Amsterdam to Luxembourg and back in early October is hard to beat. A little slice of heaven… in between ref whistles.