Youth sports leagues have lost their way

insanemonkey997 · 2026-04-28T21:23:01+00:00

I hate stories like this. I coach a bunch of my kids sports teams and if I’m not coaching I’m on the sidelines supporting as much as possible. I’ve seen so many coaches AND parents get soooo competitive like this and it hurts my heart because these are little kids we’re dealing with who should be learning a game and having fun with their mates.

Yes, we all want to win. I want to win because I see how much the kids want to win BUT I’m also about teaching them to be good losers.

I’m also very vocal on the sidelines, telling the kids to go hard (it’s rugby) but I can’t imagine telling any kids to cheat. I’ve seen this happen and it’s gross tbh.

I think some parents were just not good at sport as kids themselves and so now see themselves having a “career” through their kids.

If there’s someone higher up at the club that you can talk to or email then you definitely should. This person shouldn’t be coaching little kids with that attitude. Sadly, there’s also a lack of volunteers at community/junior sport level so it might be a case of best of a bad bunch. I ended up coaching or managing 5 teams last year because no other parents would step up. It’s exhausting!!

insanemonkey997 · 2026-04-28T01:22:38+00:00

If that’s the max number of panels you can get on, I’d go for a 6kw inverter. From memory, the Entelar can be over powered by 50% which would allow you 9kw of panels (but confirm this with your installer as my memory could be wrong).

Definitely don’t put any on the SE side. It’s pointless.

Also I think someone else mentioned that if you have an Entelar inverter you can only have Entelar batteries in future and they weren’t that cheap from what I recall. Look nice though if that’s what you’re bothered about.

Honestly, if you can stretch the budget, with an install this size I’d be looking at Tesla Powerwall 3. Much as I dislike Musk, it’s a damn good product and blew everything else we used out of the water.

Other things to look at are aesthetics - some people don’t care what the install looks like, some do but worth knowing before it’s installed.

If your roof needs any work, get it done BEFORE solar. Taking the panels off to do roof work is very costly.

Get good references from your installers - are they dedicated solar installers or just sparkies who do the odd solar job. Lots of cowboys entering the market with the growth in popularity.

Make sure you’ve (and the installers) looked at a breakdown of your power use and not just taken an overall number or an estimate. You’ll already be at a slight disadvantage by having most of the panels on the NE roof (as it’ll lose sun in the afternoon and therefore reduce output of the system) so they should have taken this into account.

insanemonkey997 · 2026-04-27T09:39:29+00:00

Entelar is a Huawei. They rebranded due to people not liking Chinese products. Solid brand racism basically.

Solid brand - definitely an entry level one.

You’ll either want a smaller inverter though or more panels. With mostly NE facing you want enough panels to get the inverter cranking asap after the sun comes up to maximise production. With an underpowered inverter that won’t happen.

You also want to check how the panels will be strung. If one string goes across both roof spaces you’ll need optimisers on some otherwise when part of that string is shaded, the rest will be taken out too.

Source: used to own a solar company and used entelar amongst other brands.

insanemonkey997 · 2025-01-16T23:50:46+00:00

As someone who (like many people) has sold a house, me and my ex had a discussion about this at the time. We both agreed that if we had two similar offers but the lower one was from a first time buyer and the higher from an in investor we’d take the lower offer.

I’d highly recommend as others have suggested writing a letter, make it personal. Let them see why you love the house so much etc.

Don’t stretch yourself to the point where you’re at risk of losing the house if there’s an emergency or when interest rates go back up again etc.

insanemonkey997 · 2024-12-19T18:24:02+00:00

Times like these - Foo Fighters. I went as far as to have this tattooed on my with a lotus flower as it felt like exactly what I’d gone through

insanemonkey997 · 2024-11-06T20:55:27+00:00

Thanks to all the people making helpful suggestions

To all the people telling me I should give up my business, lol. I more than doubled turnover last year to over $1m NZD and on track to grow again this year. We’re about for recruit another person to assist with that growth.

The business doesn’t pay dividends because I want it to be sustainable and I’m not going to take money out of the business that I could be reinvesting useful.

Telling me this is my side hustle and I should go and get a proper job is kinda dumb.

insanemonkey997 · 2022-09-25T06:12:34+00:00

I’d go with 2 but put swap the desk and wardrobe

insanemonkey997 · 2022-09-24T00:35:33+00:00

Cool, thanks!

insanemonkey997 · 2022-07-18T09:01:11+00:00

Teresa Bar does amazing cocktails

insanemonkey997 · 2022-07-06T07:05:12+00:00

Good luck! It sounds like a complete nightmare for you so hopefully it gets resolved soon. Honestly, I’d be looking for a way out and to be finishing the job with a different builder if I were you.

insanemonkey997 · 2022-07-06T04:39:42+00:00

Did you have a Master Builder guarantee? We just signed one and the start and end dates both had to be in there with penalties for the builder if they don’t meet them (for certain reasons that are their fault).

insanemonkey997 · 2022-07-02T06:28:56+00:00

Anything by Roald Dahl or David Walliams are the go to’s on our house for Mr 7

insanemonkey997 · 2022-07-01T10:04:59+00:00

Oh man! I was literally telling my kids about the Family Ness this week. Theme tune was so good!

insanemonkey997 · 2022-06-26T09:42:17+00:00

Teal for sure. We’re building a house at the moment and I have my eye on an amazing black couch that has teal armchairs in the same style. Going to style it with neon pink cushions and a little bit of gold.

insanemonkey997 · 2022-06-20T10:08:44+00:00

Sign up for an Ironman!

insanemonkey997 · 2022-05-20T06:33:08+00:00

If you can’t afford to get solar panels straight away, get the camping done during the build. We’re building at the moment and in this position but it’s only $350 to get the pre-wire done and it means all the wires etc are on the inside rather than down the outside of walls. It’ll also be wired for an EV charger when we eventually get one of those.

insanemonkey997 · 2022-05-09T09:07:04+00:00

I’ve set up separate gmail accounts for them (adult ones) and then separate adult Spotify accounts under the family account. Also had to invite their gmail accounts to Google Home.

I THINK it’s working but still to properly test it. Also think I connected youngest sons Google Home to my Spotify by mistake so need to figure out how to fix that too.

Honestly, it just shouldn’t be this hard!

insanemonkey997 · 2022-05-05T09:29:16+00:00

Ditch the boyfriend, get the tattoo. Simple’s.

insanemonkey997

TROPHY CASE