My ex signed our son up for under 6 soccer, she has missed taking him to all but one game (the season is more than half over). But his games all start early on mondays or tuesdays and I never took the time off work, especially as last time I was planning to he was misbehaving at school so she kept him out (that was the first game/practice).
So tonight I finally got to take him to his second game - coach was surprised to see him... and he was AWESOME, made me so proud!! The other kids were all pushy/shovy, hands all over, some of them had skill and of course at that age are all selfish, stealing the ball from their own team-mates etc... except my son, he was patient, played positioning, played defense, all on natural instinct and of course he was lightning fast without the ball and, always got ahead of the ball and the other players. He doesn't have the best footwork out there (I mean, c'mon they are 5 year olds!) however he used his feet to stop the ball instead of falling and grabbing like most of the other kids... only scored 1 goal, 1 little girl was the clear goal scorer, and his little friend scored a bunch too but only cause he kept stealing the ball from his team mates at the goal line, but seriously my boy had the best plus/minus, and he had a BEAUTY shot that was blocked by his little team-mate thief.
I don't want to be the competitive parent, but I was beaming with pride watching him tonight, and his little team-mates too - when he was younger he was not into any kind of structured sports so it is so soothing on my soul to have seen him get in there!
Both my ex and I are fully onboard with the other parent being there for events, and there isn't really much discomfort though we do tend to avoid each other. It just doesn't happen very often because it is hard being a single parent half the time, not anything like a single family sharing experiences together, where both parents are working together to be able to make it happen, and for both of us, our son's extra-curricular has to fit into only one parent or the other's schedule.
If I only had visitation though, I wouldn't consider any time I make to watch my son play sports count as visitation hours, it is supplemental and both parents SHOULD be making that effort, no matter whose watch the activities is occurring on.