Youth sports are fun.

You know, they provide kids with a productive means of exercise, encourage teamwork, build friendships, all of that stuff.

While that may be true, youth sports are becoming a tough sell on a key segment of our population.

Mothers.

A youth sports league franchise, i9 Sports, recently released the results of a survey conducted with 400 moms who have children in organized youth sports. The message from these moms comes across quite clearly.

Make youth sports less demanding and more fun.

Among those surveyed, 68 percent say their children’s involvement in sports causes stress in their lives. Seventy-six percent are happy when their children’s respective sports season is over.

When it comes to work, 65 percent say their children’s sports interfere with their jobs and 43 percent admit they’re less productive at work. Reasons for the latter include leaving work early for practices or games, answering emails and calls pertaining to youth sports while on the job.

Mothers are also bothered by the heavy emphasis on winning at the youth sports level.

The survey reported that 79 percent wished there was an alternative to the win-at-all-costs culture of today and 54 percent believe the competitive culture hurts children.

One incredible result of this survey is that 23 percent say they or their children have actually been excluded socially because their children weren’t as good as the other players.

The survey digs even deeper than that.

More than 25 percent of the moms polled have children in sports five nights a week and 40 percent are driving more than four hours a week just for youth sports.

Financial cost is a problem for 62 percent of those polled and 53 percent blame youth sports for robbing them of holidays, weekends and free time in general.

To a degree, there is a choice here.

If you sign a child up for any type of activity — be it dance, playing an instrument, cheerleading, sports or whatever — an element of time commitment does exist.

Parents sacrifice time in their own lives for their kids’ physical and social development. That’s been going on for years and years.

But feeling stressed because of youth sports? Being ostracized because your kid isn’t one of the best players? Being less productive at work?

That’s crossing the line.

The survey also indicated that 24 percent of those polled have resented their children because of the time youth sports takes up and said youth sports cause conflict with their significant others.

That’s downright sad.

Few of these kids will ever reach the high school level in their respective sports, let alone college or pro.

Translation: We need to relax and enjoy the ride.

If youth sports are proving to be this harmful, two choices remain.

Change them — or get out of them.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle.