GymMomStarQuest29
Proud Parent
Hey y’all. I have an almost 9 yr old, she’s practicing for level 5 or 6 (?) and going into 4th grade. In level 4, she had about 12.5 hrs of practice per week. Practices were Tuesday / Thursday and Saturday, she got home at 9:30 on weekdays. There was an adjustment as she returned to public school after homeschooling in 2020. She struggled a bit with losing confidence, etc, which we bounced back from. But 12 hrs was a lot. She got through the season and was SO excited to move on and get new skills. Well…for the summer, she got moved up to a group that practices 20.5 hours a week. Coach doesn’t talk about levels til end of summer. She’s been pushing through but she is Tired. Now, bills started coming in. A few hundred for camp, another 200 for warm ups, and we have to decide and commit to all of our selected meets by July 28th. I don’t know what level she will be except that the coach, when I asked, said “I’m hoping for level 5.” (So no cross country travel meet thank goodness.) We don’t have a practice schedule but she was included in the day program invite for kids who homeschool and that schedule would be 22.5 hours. The contract for the year is due in August, before school even starts. Assessments are upwards of $600 plus monthly costs of upwards of $300. Even though she has been gently conditioning her ankles at home, she’s been complaining about her foot hurting lately. She’s tired. She’s cranky. I ask if she wants to quit and she says no. She finally settled into this grueling schedule. Then recently on a drive I said, if you have the same amount of hours now, but also school, will you want to do it anymore? And she said no. Now, she had a bad fall, landed directly on her head, and even though she told me about it, the head coach didn’t actually reach out to me til the next morning.
All of this to say: From the start, this has been her sport and her goals to achieve. I write the checks and drive her to practice and cheer her on. I don’t want to encourage her to quit if she truly feels in her heart that this is all worth it. But I am really questioning if it’s worth it. For so many reasons. I don’t want to crush her dreams or manipulate her to feel like she wants to quit if she doesn’t. This was her journey to take. How do I guide her??
All of this to say: From the start, this has been her sport and her goals to achieve. I write the checks and drive her to practice and cheer her on. I don’t want to encourage her to quit if she truly feels in her heart that this is all worth it. But I am really questioning if it’s worth it. For so many reasons. I don’t want to crush her dreams or manipulate her to feel like she wants to quit if she doesn’t. This was her journey to take. How do I guide her??