I saw it happening too. I volunteered to help coach my daughter's summer softball team back in the late 90s. I couldn't believe the amount of parents that would bitch even at practice both at the kid and us. When the games were played I was embarrassed for the kids because if their overbearing, loud mouthed, rude parents. It's like every one of their kids were Superstars in the making. Helicopter Parents...Funny to watch them struggle with life when the kids moves out. Most are trying to re live their own school years aka the best years they ever had.... Sad really.
It’s been around for awhile. My son was on a soccer team in a town in CA in the late 1970s. The first game I went to was so terrifying I wouldn’t have gone to any more unless I felt he would have missed a family presence - the mothers were screaming insults at their children during the game if the children fumbled something, and the fathers came and berated them viciously after the game if the team lost. And then they would attack the scorekeepers and anybody else they could find.
I was disgusted. These were all white, upper middle class California parents, btw, so we can’t use “slum behavior” as an excuse.
I know exactly what you mean. Poor kids!