Actually, facetious and flippant as I may be, when does it stop being acceptable to cry? I can remember any tears past the age of about 7 or 8 to have resulted in serious mickey-taking and the word "bealing" (is that exclusive to Grimsby?) being strewn around like confetti.
Down here year sixes (age 11) cry and it gets sympathy...
I know what you mean.
I'm coaching my young bloke's under 6 football side. You know, they get flooged 8-0 coz they're all 4 -5 y.o playing against 6 y.os, they don't chase the ball, don't listen, etc., and they come off and you're supposed to encourage them, and we do. Meh.
I long for the days like when my grandfather coached me at football and cricket. We'd be in the under 12s and get rolled for 90-odd, he'd walk off, say "Everyone in the sheds", then proceed to peel paint off the walls - "That was the most gutless and inept display of batting I've seen in 30 years of coaching at this club", "Show some bloody heart", "Learn to get behind the ball", "You're out there batting like a pack of scared litle girls", etc. etc.
And that was his relaxed, refined summer mode - don't start me on the soccer side of things.
After 8 weeks of my son's soccer side getting flogged, I'd just like to be able to fire up once, rather than have to go around high-fiving them and asking if they had fun, when they spent 3/4 of the game picking the ball out of the net!!
And another thing, because they get smashed each week, they kick-off on average 6-9 times per game. You'd think they'd be getting good at it, but oh no, they stand there looking at you and you STILL have to tell them where to stand.
So Neil, to answer your question, I'm 37 and I still cry in frustration every week at full time after the under 6s lose yet another game.
I start therapy next week.....