Parents Great article- "Your kid and my kid are not playing for the pros"

[tarheel618]

I hate the "if you would have banked everything you spent on gym, her college would be paid for by now" argument. It's based on a fallacy that assumes the only purpose of gym, or any other sport, is college play time.

Yes, I suppose the money would have paid for some college but then she would have missed out on so many experiences that gym has provided: good friends, travel, learning to handle pressure, learning to manage her time, excellent physical fitness, overcoming fear and disappointment, etc. A bank account full of money can't teach all of that.

I hate when someone says that too. Like I don't realize just how much I am spending. The gym gives so much to my girls. The best thing is that my girls are great at managing time and not procrastinating on assignments (my oldest had a bad habit of this until we started gym). They both are A-B honor roll students with most quarters earning all A's as they know that they must keep their grades up in order to do gym. Guess you can say I have a love/hate relationship with gymnastics (love all it offers/hate paying for it)

 

[my4buffaloes]

He can't possibly be talking about gymnastics parents because we don't shuffle our kids from sport to sport every night. We don't have to juggle multiple schedules of practices and games. We drop at the gym and 4 hours later we pick up at the gym. 1 schedule, 1 location for practices. There is NO time for anything else so it is never an issue if Suzy should try out for this team or not.

And honestly by choosing gymnastics you are saying no to all that crazy stuff he talks about in there. As gymnastics families we have our own kind of crazy though LOL.

 

[balancedmom]

I actually liked and agreed with much of the article. But it did not make me feel bad. My daughter loves being at the gym and we have family times albeit not on gym nights. But what I liked about the article was the overall point that for almost every kid these sports are for fun. Not to get a college scholarship, not the Olympics, heck maybe bot even for next year. It is about your child enjoying what he or she is doing. To be honest I see so many parents pushing what seem like their dreams. or pushing for their kids to be something they are not.

Not that this is limited to sports...did you see the movie about the kids in the spelling bee. I guess I really liked the message that three is more than any activity and don't do it for some future benefit. but I do have a just turned 9 year old who spends 12 hours at the gym and when the doctor told us her knee was hurt of course I asked when she could get back out there! That is because dd loves it. And honestly I would be upset if she quit but I know that day is coming at some point in the next 5 years and we will all move on.