However, a survey of young athletes indicated that almost a third of youngsters believed their parents had overreacted from the sidelines at least once. Parents have a crucial role in encouraging their child in activities. There is a lot of bad parenting and unnecessary pressure when roughly 60 million American children participate in organized sports. The annoying parent is still the exception, but there are enough of them that, according to the National Association of Sports Officials, more than 70% of new referees will have given up their jobs within three years.