Parents What is burnout?

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Gymmom826

Proud Parent
I hear that term used a lot that they can "burn out" but not sure what it means. Then how much is too much? When do you know? How do you know if it's happening? Some do and some don't? What are some experiences with it?
 
Think about your ability to handle too much of anything. Pizza is tasty, but if you at it for lunch every single day, you'd lose interest, and possibly not want to eat it anymore even though you used to like it. At some point, it crossed over from being something you ate because you liked it and chose to eat, and it became something you eat because that's what you eat.

That line is in a different place for everyone, and it's in a different place for different things for the same person.
 
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I definitely am feeling parent burnout right now. I hear about all of these fun summer camps and all that I can think of is how much I hate fall competition season. My kids though? They haven't complained once about going to their own practices (their siblings' practices getting in the way of fun? Yes. Their own? No.)
 
But don't you also think that all the hours at such a young age, helps bring about the burnout? I know at our gym, the developmental teams start young, and they are tough on the girls. We have a large group of L2s, L3s and then for 4/5/6 it gets smaller and smaller, because the girls "burn out" by then. I love that my dd loves this sport, but sometimes wish she had more time to goof off, try other sports, take breaks from it, etc, without falling off the JO track...
 
But don't you also think that all the hours at such a young age, helps bring about the burnout? I know at our gym, the developmental teams start young, and they are tough on the girls. We have a large group of L2s, L3s and then for 4/5/6 it gets smaller and smaller, because the girls "burn out" by then. I love that my dd loves this sport, but sometimes wish she had more time to goof off, try other sports, take breaks from it, etc, without falling off the JO track...

I think the number of hours and discipline required absolutely DO contribute to burnout. It's a catch-22. Gymnasts NEED those hours in training in order to safely do their sport, but if they didn't have quite so many hours, they wouldn't abandon the sport as much as they do.
 
At what age do they need to start doing the large number of hours to safely do their sport? I think the huge number of hours some of the young girls are being asked to do may be a huge factor in young gymnasts burning out. I've heard of some gymnasts in my DD pre-team being asked to move to 16 hours a week. Isn't this a lot for 5 and 6 year old girls? Would this contribute to burn out? And I'm honestly asking b/c this sport is still very new for our family.
 
16 hours for preteam seems crazy. 16 hours for a 5-6 year old seems crazy. At our gym they move to 16 hours at level 5.
 
That does seem a lot for a 5-6 year old. My 10 year old can only handle between 17-20 hours. Anything more and she starts being overly emotional and complaining about her training hours.
 

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