Parents Other activities and worry

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Tmacs

Proud Parent
My daughter is a level 4/5 and doing great. I have always stressed that she should keep other interests and activities as much as possible to balance gym and keep options open. However, now I’m the one who gets worried when she does other things. I stress when we go skiing during the season and now she wants to play rec basketball on her one day off from gym. And my first thought is “she’ll jam her finger and not be able to compete.”
Is it Covid that’s made me so concerned she’ll lose out on another season or is this normal when your kid invests so much time into one sport? I feel like I’m becoming way more invested/involved in the gym world than I want to be at this point.
 
It doesn’t necessarily mean that you are too invested in gymnastics. It usually means yiu are invested in yiur daughter. You know that she works hard, and puts an enormous amount of time and effort and passion into her gymnastics, you don’t want to see her miss out on the rewards she has worked so hard to earn in the sport.

You care deeply about because she does. That sounds like great parenting to me.

Gymnastics in itself will keep her options open for sport. Gymnasts tend to excel in most sports they try due to the amazing agility, coordination, strength, flexibility and balance they develop. If she doesn’t do other sport now, it doesn’t mean she won’t be able to take them up later and excel at them.
 
I go through these same issues. My daughter is Level 9, so had to give up playing basketball several years ago. This was purely a function of not having the time/bandwidth to participate. But recently my daughter has picked up skateboarding and likes to do that with a friend during downtime. We absolutely insist she wear a helmet and wrist guards. But even with that, I know that I am WAY more nervous about her doing it during competition time then I will be in the summer. That's for sure!
 
She could break or sprain something just walking down the street.

A gymnast at my daughters gym broke her ankle stepping off a curb.

My kid jammed her finger in the car door 4 days before states one year..... made for ugly bars.

No, I don’t worry
 
My daughter is a level 4/5 and doing great. I have always stressed that she should keep other interests and activities as much as possible to balance gym and keep options open. However, now I’m the one who gets worried when she does other things. I stress when we go skiing during the season and now she wants to play rec basketball on her one day off from gym. And my first thought is “she’ll jam her finger and not be able to compete.”
Is it Covid that’s made me so concerned she’ll lose out on another season or is this normal when your kid invests so much time into one sport? I feel like I’m becoming way more invested/involved in the gym world than I want to be at this point.

Most of the gym moms I am friends with - rational, not-crazy, supportive in the right ways type of parents - seem to be feeling some level of wary about not letting anything else cause additional setbacks after this past year. No matter what the sport or goal is, everyone’s patience with delays is thin right now and wanting to protect any sense of normalcy and progress toward our goals that we can find seems pretty rational to me!

Every choice is a cost-benefit analysis and I think the key is letting the athlete choose their priorities and what they are willing to risk. Due to anxiety my gut reaction is always going to be similar to yours, covid or not, but I do my best to not let that influence my choices. I try to say yes to all the things in the summer, and during meet season I remind her what may happen and let her choose (“I suggest getting wrist guards because if you break your wrist you won’t get to compete on Saturday...”) She wouldn’t have the foresight to consider the risk on her own but once aware, she chooses to go put on wrist guards because she knows she values gymnastics more than skating. If she chose otherwise I’d be okay with her missing meet season because I did my job and she made her choice about what she most values - and that’s part of growing up. I think if your DD considers that an additional sport increases her risk of setback at gym but she still wants to do it, let her do it and have fun!
 
I’m relieved and impressed to hear that your daughter is managing to squeeze in multiple activities and keeping her options open. I wouldn’t worry about injury. the kids I know with injuries right now got them from things like couch jumping, wrestling siblings, and homemade scooter ramps. Mine is still little and in pre-team, but gyms near us either have so few hours that it’s hard to be promoted past rec classes, or so many hours that it seems like no other activities are possible. We don’t have great recreational/lower-commitment sports team in the area and many kids start travel soccer, baseball, or basketball with multiple practices per week as early as 7-8.

But there are still plenty of college gymnasts who seem to have found a little balance along the way. Amanda Zeng is at Stanford now but lived in our area, and she definitely was skiing for fun as a Level 10.
 
I am currently having sort of the opposite concern. I have a persistent worry that my daughter will get injured in gymnastics and will be unable to fully participate in her senior track season. Her junior season was cancelled and I really hope she can have a senior season. (track and field is the sport she may continue with in college). So I have been super supportive of her decision to give up the flipping vaults and to stick with the same tumbling she has done for the past 3 years. She competes Xcel Diamond and is having a pretty good, if limited, season competing her basics:).
 
I understand your worries, but on the other hand, that's what makes her happy, so why should you forbid it? Other activities will help her keep her balance, the main thing is to support her.
 
For me, it's a time balance since I have another kid in competitive soccer so our schedule gets pretty hectic during the school year. Like other posters have mentioned, I let DD try other sports over the summer when it's not competition season. During competition season, I remind her she has to choose. Injury can happen in any sport, and she's already had a few small ones from gymnastics, so I don't worry about it too much.
 
I understand your worries, but on the other hand, that's what makes her happy, so why should you forbid it? Other activities will help her keep her balance, the main thing is to support her.
For sure. I would never “forbid” anything but in the future, she may have to choose. Right now, she loves gym and is super excited to try basketball and so I’m excited for her but nervous about it as well as meets are sparse this year.
 
@Tmacs, I hear you. So this happened... DD was invited to a party at an ice rink the week before her provincial meet. We talked about the ice skating (something she doesn't do often) and decided together that she would attend the party, but not skate. The morning of the party she dropped down from bars, lost her balance and stuck out her arm behind her as she sat down. And shattered her humerus in the elbow. The irony!
I don't have any advise, unfortunately - I just work hard to keep my own anxiety manageable.
 
@Tmacs, I hear you. So this happened... DD was invited to a party at an ice rink the week before her provincial meet. We talked about the ice skating (something she doesn't do often) and decided together that she would attend the party, but not skate. The morning of the party she dropped down from bars, lost her balance and stuck out her arm behind her as she sat down. And shattered her humerus in the elbow. The irony!
I don't have any advise, unfortunately - I just work hard to keep my own anxiety manageable.
Ha! Soon after I posted this, she hurt herself at gym... not badly but enough to weirdly relax me. It gave me perspective that anything can happen and not to try to so tightly control!
 

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