WAG Gymnastics is F*****

[Deleted member 18037]

I just read the article and thought, "should I share this with my 12 year old DD?". I think maybe it is too much. But I do want to maybe share similar. I think she should be aware of all that's going on. She'd been to the ranch and knows all about Naser.
But I also want her to be aware that there is lesser abuse happening that is still abuse. I want her to stick up for friends if she ever sees it and to stick up for herself too.

Has anyone shared these accounts with your gymnasts? Any that are maybe a little less intense? Or would you share this one? She goes to various camps where I never meet the coaches. I trust her coaches but there are others that come and go and we are not encouaged to watch practice. Which I'm kind of over anyway. I want her to be empowered with knowledge that part of this culture is not acceptable.

Yes I have.

My child likes to ponder before she chats. And she will talk much easier about someone else rather then a if this happened or is it happening to you approach. Also, I would rather know what she is hearin/seeing/reading then have her stumbling on it herself and feel like she needs to keep it a secret.

I am the same with TV and movies, she can watch pretty adult type programs with me (sometimes I watch first, then with her). It leads to some good conversations. Usually days or weeks after in the car. But I can clearly see she has been thinking.

 

[John]

@kimute My DD would not read the article but that does not stop me from telling her the things I have read and the lessons to be learned from those things. I figure she can learn these things from me and we can speak about them or she can learn them from others.

 

[UGA2016]

Some thoughts on why parents may not intervene when the sport takes ahold of their/their daughters lives. Including a very honest narrative from a parent.

None of the parents I have interviewed over the years set out to put gymnastics before their child’s wellbeing, it was a slow, almost invisible process that crept up on them throughout their daughters’ careers. Like the boiling frog fable … it happens so subtly that you don’t even realise the effects until it’s too late.

(Excerpts from parents narrative)

The head coach at that club used to, I mean she’s just an obnoxious creature all round, but she just used to say things, like she wanted her parents to be muppets. It was communicated indirectly but it was made clear that you put up and shut up, that you should accept whatever and you got used to doing that, it creeps up on you bit by bit.

So leaving the environment especially when you have got used to, because when your children are training those sorts of hours and doing that sort of thing, you know, people that don’t do that sort of thing are often incredulous. And you become quite used to sneering or laughing at these outsiders that don’t understand, and laughing at them, and it becomes that you are not part of that environment somehow and can no longer see the wood for the trees. So you very slowly learn to accept an awful lot, and because you don’t want to rock the boat, particularly at this club it was so obvious, children were punished all the time in subtle and not so subtle ways. As parents we were all sort of walking on egg shells the whole time trying not to make things worse, all the time thinking that we were doing things in the interests of our children and doing the best thing for our kids, for what they wanted. It’s only with an enormous dose of hindsight that you sort of see things for what they are, because my children suffered abuse over about four years there and it was only when things got very very bad that it became very very obvious that it had to come to an end and I had to finish it all. It was only after that, that I could actually see what had been happening with some level of normal perspective, and even now it’s very hard, I still doubt myself now and my judgements now because I don’t know with which perspective I am seeing things.

Full blog article
https://warriorsinleotards.com/2018/12/03/what-about-the-parents/

 

[FlippinLilysMom]

I am not sure what gym or coach you are referring to, but I wonder what exactly USA Gymnastics Safe Sport is doing with the type of cases that they are supposed to handle. (Non sexual misconduct cases, so psychological, emotional, and bullying type abuses). I have wondered what is going on with John Geddert, Han (Everest), Jeff Thompson (former PSU coach, but coaching in Texas)? I think USA Gymnastics wants transparency and accountability, but it is hard to understand how they are handling these cases.

Han was at devo camp with a gymnast in October, they were not at the devo camp in November because he was opening either a second gym location or an entirely new location. My daughter's coach roomed with him during October camp and Han told everyone that all charges against him had been dropped, that he was able to prove his innocence and clear his name.