Sheltering my Kids?

I have two beautiful boys, ages 2.5 and 4.5. Lately I have been thinking more and more about whether I will encourage my boys to play pool. Of course, I might not have a choice in what they want to do and especially since Dad loves to play so much I am guessing the boys will too. What bothers me is that so many times I have seen the pool hall corrupt the innocents. Doe eyed kids become drug addict gamblers at record pace in alot of the halls.

For you guys older than me, can you give me some advice on this?

Sons Playing Pool

Sons Playing Pool

I have three sons, two in their early 40's and one in his late 30's. I fell in love with pool at 13 and played every day for 8 or 9 years and several times a week for the next 40 years. I never encouraged my boys to play pool. While I took them to the room once and a while, they all played other sports up to & through most of their teenage years. They all play pool once and a while for fun, and still do. My oldest will gamble a little playing golf on a snooker table. He opened a sports bar/pool room several years ago and started playing golf then. If any of them would have gotten the bug as bad as I had it I would have encouraged them, but I let them go in the direction they wanted, and wasn't unhappy they didn't choose pool. Like they say, I could have been a brain surgeon, considering the time I spent at it. I don't regret any of it and have friends all over the country I met playing pool. I still play a little, but have other interests that also keep me busy. A far as the drugs, kids are going to be exposed whether they play pool or not and almost certainly experiment with them. I had my problems with my boys and drugs, and probably had better luck dealing with it because I been there/done that. You didn't go into a 24 hour pool room on Friday and go home on Sunday or Monday in the early 60's without a little help. We raised our family in an upper middle class neighborhood (Arcadia, CA) and drugs were available to any of the kids who wanted them. Lots of good people play pool, and the ones who abuse drugs would be doing it whether they were pool players or not. If you love pool, share it with them when it is time and let them learn from their dad.

What you could do is to develop a group of guys around your pool room that wont stand for any nonsense. Like drugs or stiffing people or pulling con jobs. Isolate those rats and agree never to give them any "action" or "Friendship". A group of guys that will welcome you into the place and help any novice out and make the place friendly and safe but as soon as you get out of line let you know that the group wont stand for it.

We got some guys who bring their families in occasionally during the day who regulars get to know. Good people. But when their families leave its back to serious playing. I know this is the group mentality type of thing but it has proven succesfully against loudmouths, drunks, and troublemakers.

Last night I shot some One Pocket for a few hours at the local club, and I happened to notice that one of the regulars didn't really look himself. I mentioned something to that effect and he started talking... Turns out his sixteen YO son was arrested for drugs over last weekend -- first time, but still, rather troubling and eye-opening. I have never once seen that kid in the club, and as far as I know, he doesn't shoot pool at all, although he does appear to have a lot of relatively unsupervised time during afternoons and evenings.

The only thing I would say is to spend lots of time with your kids. Get a table at home and if possible. If your sons do get into pool, hell that's a great thing for you to do together!

shoot pool, not drugs