Parents Behaving Badly

Book Trailer

Simon & Schuster Author Interview

Team Meeting

“The title, Parents Behaving Badly, pretty much says it all. In his debut novel, Scott Gummer lifts the cap off Little League to reveal a teeming mass of bellowed epithets, thwarted ambition, underhanded double-dealing and parents eyeing each other lustfully in the bleachers. Thanks to his father’s legacy as a legendary high school coach, narrator Ben Holden recoils from baseball the way most of us would at the underside of a dugout bench. But after he and his wife, Jili, move back to their California home town, their sons get swept up in the family pastime, and Ben finds himself nursing a crush on the red-haired mom of a teammate. Gummer, a Little League coach himself, excels in hilariously detailed descriptions of the sport and its participants. Parents Behaving Badly will leave you laughing and grateful that your kid decided to go out for soccer.”

—NPR

“Scott Gummer’s first novel uses a popular sport—baseball—in one of the best ways a novel can: as a backdrop for dark comedy. Here, Ben and Jili, a level-headed pair of suburban parents, find themselves in the middle of the very strange, weirdly competitive world of Little League baseball, where the kids are nervous, the coaches are punishing and the adults’ memories of childhood are surprisingly fresh. In arching a brow at youth sports, Gummer resists the urge to make all of the parents awful (only some of them are awful) or to discount the very real trade-off that sometimes exists between winning as much as possible and having a good experience as a player. As much as it’s a sharp-tongued takedown of win-at-all-costs culture, Parents Behaving Badly is also a teasing, but ultimately affectionate, story about a happy marriage grappling with the approach of middle age and the pressures of parenting kids who are getting older every day.”

—Washington Post

“A devastatingly accurate—and laugh out loud funny—look at the culture of contemporary youth sports, the boys and girls who just want to have fun, and the parents who do more harm than good despite their best intentions.”

—Hannah Storm, ESPN Anchor & Journalist

“Parents Behaving Badly isn’t just a sharp satire about Little League madness; it’s also a shrewd and sympathetic portrait of a mid-life marriage. Scott Gummer writes with equal insight about wayward spouses and conniving coaches.”

—Tom Perrotta, author of Little Children and The Abstinence Teacher

“Scott Gummer does a great job of reminding us why kids play sports, why parents coach and, with tongue in cheek, what happens when parents forget that sports are supposed to be fun. With a great deal of humor, Gummer never loses sight of the life lessons baseball teaches kids and parents alike. Parents Behaving Badly is a thoroughly entertaining story and a must read.”

—Cal Ripken, Jr., member, Baseball Hall of Fame

“Indispensable reading for anyone attempting to navigate the often bizarre snake pit of youth sports. Wickedly hilarious and brilliantly written, Gummer’s novel is filled with keen insights and sharp observations that will stay with you. This book should be required reading for the whole world of youth sports.”

—Leigh Steinberg, sports attorney

“Parents Behaving Badly is the perfect melding of the modern American bloodsports of Little League and wedlock: harrowing and warm-hearted.”

—Larry Doyle, author of I Love You, Beth Cooper and Go, Mutants!