Parents Getting 4 year old to leave it in the Gym

[dani4]

I have this problem with my 4 & 2 year old.. and we have been going through a cycle where DH encourages it, then 4 yo escalates it, 2 yo follows what 4 yo does (and comes up with her own way of wreaking havoc), and I have to stop it. Right now 4 yo is doing "vault" by jumping from the arm chair to the couch and doing headstand-rolls. At first DH was like, "wow, look what DD can do!" And now he's wondering how we can get her to stop, because she has come close to breaking something. He needs to stop encouraging this wild stuff to begin with... I guess we need to have a talk. That was the whole point of buying a mini trampoline, to keep them from jumping on the couch. But they've discovered all this new stuff to do on the couch that can't be done on the little tramp.

I would love to get DD a second session of gymnastics, but she's already doing dance class and preschool and we have an au pair.. I feel like we're tapped out, financially.

 

[gymratmom]

I gave up a long time ago, but I will say that she has stopped doing a lot of the more dangerous tumbling in the house. She actually hurt her wrist pretty badly trying her bar routine on a tree limb, having to skip gym for a couple of weeks taught her a lesson. We were lucky it wasn't worse but glad she learned. At 7 she still cartwheels instead of walks, does her squat on on the couch, etc. Drives me crazy but nothing she is doing is dangerous. We got a trampoline last year, after resisting for a long time. The coaches hate it because she comes back with new "skills"that they have to retrain her on, but she gets so much joy and exercise on it that I decided to stop trying to limit what she does on it. She will just have to learn that bad form earns bad scores and go from there.

 

[cbifoja]

I think my words are going to be unpopular and many will disagree but I think that to a point, it is very natural for young children, even non-gymnasts, to do these kinds of things at home and on the playground. Most little girls twirl, roll, cartwheel, and jump. These are all parts of gymnastics but also very natural movements to young children full of energy and strength.

I think that doing handstands, forward and backward rolls, cartwheel is not only very normal but healthy and I personally think it is silly to try to make a big deal out of these low level tricks. You say she's "vaulting" over the coach but that's because you see it from a gymnastics perspective. To non-gymnastics parent, it might just be hurdling or leap frogging or rolling over an obstacle.

Notice however that all of my examples are low level skills in gymnastics. I don't think kids should be allowed to do all the gymnastics they want at home. Some things really are only safe at the gym. But the things you mention sound like part of a happy childhood full of physical activity and play.

After all, if your child was a track or cross country phenom would you tell them not to run? Of course not. Running is a natural activity for children. Now you probably wouldn't want the pole vaulting in the backyard but that's not the skill level we're talking about.....yet.

 

[cbifoja]

Sheesh....I swear sometimes I should not be allowed to use the computer. I though the post at the top of the page by Dani was the OP and was responding to her. So imagine my surprise to find my post all the way on page 3.

 

[srsjbs]

We always joke that our 6 year old spends more time on her hands then her feet. She literally cannot go more then 5 minutes without rolling, doing cartwheels, handstands, etc. I really don't get on her too much unless she attempts to do something dangerous. After all my other 2 daugters (9 and 5) cartwheel everywhere and we don't make them quit. After she started learning more advanced skills last year we had to put our foot down and limit gymnastics to the previous things listed. In other words, "I don't care if you can do 2 BHS's, that only happens in the gym." Even so, it never fails to amaze me that she can spend 3 hours a day, 4 days a week at the gym and still come home and bounce all over the place. She's exhausting just to watch lol!

 

[claudidoll]

Little Miss is loving her new advanced rec class and getting to go twice a week

But she now practices her bridges, and handstand to bridge kick over ( using the couch for support...

I've accepted a certain amount of gym in the house, I think the big worry is that one of her three siblings will jump on her mid skill