Saturday morning, U10 game, the second half. You are holding a coffee. The opposing coach has been edgy all match. He yells at his own striker for losing the ball. He yells at the referee, a teenager in a yellow shirt, for a throw-in call. Then a 9-year-old on his team misses a tackle and the coach screams a word you would not say in your own kitchen. The kids on both sidelines have heard it. Your kid is mid-game, twenty metres away. The parents around you are looking at the grass. By full-time, in about eighteen minutes, you will have to decide whether you say something at the ground, who you tell, and what you write tonight. None of that is obvious in the moment. This is the parent's emergency manual, in the order you need it.

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