My sister was 9. She was still in her clumsy stage, and she didn’t even know how to spell the word “specific.” Yet, she was on the soccer field, listening to a parent scream. Every time a foul was called, he would argue it, and he would ignore the referee’s requests for him to be quiet. Eventually, this dad got kicked out of the game.

Later in this same game, another dad entered into the same combative cycle, and he too was asked to leave. However, he decided to exploit his child in the process. Claiming it was difficult to push a stroller through grass, this father took 10 minutes and the ref reminding him to leave to get him to actually leave the field. As soon as he got back to his car, the final whistle was blown, and this dad suddenly gained magic stroller-through-grass pushing skills and was back on the field in 30 seconds.

After the game, the daughter of the first dad was so embarrassed, she refused to speak to her teammates.

My sister was 10. She was playing soccer again and still had adorable baby-like ringlets framing her face. Throughout the game, a parent from the other team stood on top of the bleachers with his arms crossed. He was literally and metaphorically looking down on the fourth grade soccer players as he screamed the entire game. When the game ended, a parent from the screaming dad’s team asked that my sister’s team not judge them based on one guy who was crazy.

My sister was 11. She was still in elementary school. This time, a dad on the other team felt that the referee wasn’t calling enough fouls, so he told his daughter to start hitting people in the back because the referee wouldn’t call it anyway. The referee gave the a girl a yellow card. Her father was furious, and she was embarrassed.

My sister was 12. She had just begun middle school and was still learning how to traverse Kennedy in 4-minute passing periods. Yet again, a parent was being obnoxious during one of her soccer games. This time, however, the parent’s vitriolic outbursts made the teenaged referee cry and forced the rest of the parents to band together to kick the parent out of the game.

My sister is 13. She is in her very first season of playing basketball for her school. During one of her games, a kid was making fart noises every time my sister’s team took a free throw. During my sister’s free throw, he yelled “MISS!” I turned around and told him to stop yelling, to which his mother told me to not criticize her son. I told her to not let her son be rude to my sister. After this, the kid’s mother and her friends would talk loudly every time my sister’s team took a free throw.

Also during this game, a dad was obnoxiously coaching and yelling. After the game, I learned his daughter was on A. We had been watching the AA game.

Now, I think we can all agree that these parents I have described are ridiculous. They take their anger out on their elementary- and junior high-aged kids and bring negativity into an environment where positivity is supposed to flow.

However, I think we can also all agree that when we watch a sporting event on TV, be it the Super Bowl or March Madness, we all will obnoxiously scream at the players. We will cheer against the other team, hoping that they miss their penalty kick or that they strike out.

When it comes to college and professional sports, the sports environment seems to have changed from a place where negativity is shunned to where it is encouraged.

This leads me to my question: Where do we draw the line? When is this shift acceptable? Furthermore, when is this shift encouraged? Is it in high school? In college?

At what point am I allowed to hope that someone fails? That they get hurt?

I know I end a lot of my columns open-ended like this, but I truly don’t have an answer for you. So maybe that’s the point of this column, to simply point out the ridiculousness of youth athletes parents and to let you decide for yourself when it is okay to encourage negative cheering.