M
monkeysmom
There is a whole lot of criticism of gymnastics parents in general on this board.
Me being new to the board, relatively new to gymnastics, just gotta say. The vast majority of parents with kids involved in gymnastics seem to me to be cool people, flexible, supportive and definitely more laid back than most of my friends when it comes to their kids.
My daughter is seven and has a number of friends who have not had a sleepover at a friends's house, whose moms are very careful about who they leave their kids with, show they play with, what actitivies they do, food they eat etc etc. I'm not knocking that at all, I'm a little that way myself. Many of those friends would be blown away by what gymnastics parents deal with and accept as normal. My daughter loves gymnastics and I wholeheartedly support her in it, but part of me is certainly jealous of my sister in law whose daughter is a soccer standout, she gets to go to fun games, sit in the sunshine, chat, hang out with other parents. So does my sister whose kids are involved in hockey and soccer, they have a lot of fun at games and tournaments. My daughter picked a sport where there is very little communication from the coaches to parents, you don't watch practices and turn your kids over to coaches you barely know for hours.
My daughter won't be in a meet for quite a while, all I do is pretty much write checks and drive a lot. Recreational programs and the money those parents pay make the gyms and team programs possible, yet there is another weird thing, they are often not acknowledged at all at our gym by team personnel/coaches and athletes while occupying the same physical space, it's weird--so my hats off to those kids and parents as well because they play a unrecognized pivotal role at the gym and many of their kids love the sport. Seems these kids would be potentially some of the biggest gymnastics fans, including being fans of the higher level teams girls at their gym, but the connection there, at least at our gym in terms of unifying spirit is, well, nonexistent. No flyers even went out to the rec girls to come and cheer or watch the gym's own home meet (it's in a big venue with lots or room). Discounts to the national championships were not offered or even mentioned to the rec girls. Come on, any sport needs more fans not less, what better potential and future fans are there out there than kids who are participating in it?
This is such a strange insular sport even within the same four walls! To sum up, in my observation, gymnastics parents (in whatever shape and form) are a pretty amazing and supportive bunch, and by definition are more laid back than most other parents I know, not less. You gotta be to just function as a parent in this sport. I'm still waiting for the fun part for me! I went to a friend's son's baseball game during my daughter's practice last week just to enjoy watching some kids play a sport--it was wonderful and yep I'm jealous!!
Me being new to the board, relatively new to gymnastics, just gotta say. The vast majority of parents with kids involved in gymnastics seem to me to be cool people, flexible, supportive and definitely more laid back than most of my friends when it comes to their kids.
My daughter is seven and has a number of friends who have not had a sleepover at a friends's house, whose moms are very careful about who they leave their kids with, show they play with, what actitivies they do, food they eat etc etc. I'm not knocking that at all, I'm a little that way myself. Many of those friends would be blown away by what gymnastics parents deal with and accept as normal. My daughter loves gymnastics and I wholeheartedly support her in it, but part of me is certainly jealous of my sister in law whose daughter is a soccer standout, she gets to go to fun games, sit in the sunshine, chat, hang out with other parents. So does my sister whose kids are involved in hockey and soccer, they have a lot of fun at games and tournaments. My daughter picked a sport where there is very little communication from the coaches to parents, you don't watch practices and turn your kids over to coaches you barely know for hours.
My daughter won't be in a meet for quite a while, all I do is pretty much write checks and drive a lot. Recreational programs and the money those parents pay make the gyms and team programs possible, yet there is another weird thing, they are often not acknowledged at all at our gym by team personnel/coaches and athletes while occupying the same physical space, it's weird--so my hats off to those kids and parents as well because they play a unrecognized pivotal role at the gym and many of their kids love the sport. Seems these kids would be potentially some of the biggest gymnastics fans, including being fans of the higher level teams girls at their gym, but the connection there, at least at our gym in terms of unifying spirit is, well, nonexistent. No flyers even went out to the rec girls to come and cheer or watch the gym's own home meet (it's in a big venue with lots or room). Discounts to the national championships were not offered or even mentioned to the rec girls. Come on, any sport needs more fans not less, what better potential and future fans are there out there than kids who are participating in it?
This is such a strange insular sport even within the same four walls! To sum up, in my observation, gymnastics parents (in whatever shape and form) are a pretty amazing and supportive bunch, and by definition are more laid back than most other parents I know, not less. You gotta be to just function as a parent in this sport. I'm still waiting for the fun part for me! I went to a friend's son's baseball game during my daughter's practice last week just to enjoy watching some kids play a sport--it was wonderful and yep I'm jealous!!
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