Parents Please help me get through this week!!

DON'T LURK... Join The Discussion!

Members see FEWER ads

Gymmonkeymomma

Proud Parent
This is the week of the dreaded CHEERING tryouts in town. Some of you may recall that I allowed both of my DD's to participate in town cheering (football) and they also both made the competition squad. I spent the entire fall pulling them out of gymnastics pracitce, or bringing them late (but never both girls on same day at same time) so essentially for 4 days a week I was making double the amount of trips back and forth to gym. Not to mention that oldest DD lost alot of time training while her teammates were working new, harder skills. And both girls had to miss the first meet of the season b/c it conflicted with the cheering comp. Of course, oldest LOVED cheering and could not wait to do it again. Thank goodness Little Monkey did not care for it as much!

Fast forward 5 months, big DD brings home registration form and I tell her NO WAY is she doing cheer UNLESS it does not conflict w/gym practices. Of course this was what we were initally promised last year and it was all bull! But this year, the new commissioner is a friend whose DD's are in All Star cheer so she is aware of my situation although her DD's do not practice half as much as mine do at the gym. So I begrungingly sign up big DD for town cheer and I allowed her to put her name on the list for comp, with the stipulation that she can only try out if they set the practice schedule and it does not overlap her gym time.

True to her word, my friend has been trying to set the schedule and keep me informed, but the coaches have not confirmed. Tryouts are this week - Thurs, Sat, Sun. She said just let Kelsey try out and if the schedule doesn't work, pull her. I told her that is not fair to my DD, nor would it be fair to other girls as it would take up a spot on the squad. (There is no reason to think my DD would not make it, they want her for her tumbling skills.)

I've already explained that you cannot participate in everything, and although I understand that you enjoy cheering, it's not like you are giving up gymnastics to do it full time. It is ONE competition preceeded by alot of hoopla (parties, bonfires, pep rally, more parties, gifts, RIDICULOUS stuff, not to mention being coached and sometimes verbally abused by high school girls, and the drama of the squad fighting amongst themselves, and cheer moms who criticize everyone else's kid!) I told DD (2nd yr level 8) that she has 3 meets already scheduled, the first of which is the same wkend as the cheering comp. The 2nd meet is Parkettes, which is a big meet w/good teams, you don't want to go an embarrass yourself by being ill-prepared, and the 3rd is the Magical Classic in Orlando - if we're spending the $ for travel meets, she needs to be FOCUSED!!!

So.... I am preparing myself for a week of drama, filled with tears, because I'm not standing down on this one! In the end, Kels will get over it which she always does, but she will make it h*ll for me for the next 7 days!!! Please wish me luck!!!
 
Sending you calming (((VIBES))) for all of you....I am glad I don't have that argument here. J tried cheer for one year and hated it. Our gym just started a all-star cheer group and DD can't stand when they are in gym at same time as they are loud, distracting and goofy. One girl did a stunt in front of us parents waiting for practice to be done and he gel boob pads popped out of her chest & onto the floor! She also can't stand all the glitter on the eye-lids and hair spray clouds. They were getting ready for a demo at our rec show and while walking past them thru the lobby had her shirt up over her mouth & nose, LOL The Pop Warner isn't bad here, one team won at Disney this year, but the season will now comflict with L5 season anyway. Plus I am like you, driving kids all over since I have two other kids who are really involved in stuff too. Sometimes I feel like I don't get home until 9 or 10 at night!

I'm sure your DD's understand it's alot of work for you to drive them, pick them up and do both...hope they go easy on you this week!!!!
 
Our gym just started a all-star cheer group and DD can't stand when they are in gym at same time as they are loud, distracting and goofy. One girl did a stunt in front of us parents waiting for practice to be done and he gel boob pads popped out of her chest & onto the floor! She also can't stand all the glitter on the eye-lids and hair spray clouds. They were getting ready for a demo at our rec show and while walking past them thru the lobby had her shirt up over her mouth & nose, LOL The Pop Warner isn't bad here, one team won at Disney this year

Our gym also has All Star cheer which my girls also did this past season and they both hated it! Those tryouts were yesterday and neither one wanted any part of that!

Our town comp squad is more like your Pop Warner. We compete in UCCL. There is no makeup or cheesey uniforms, it is all very stylish and with neat hairdos' LOL. Its all about being with your school friends which I guess is more important for the 12 yr old!
 
Good luck!! I don't envy your position right now.

Not to add to the stress but as older DD goes on she may decide not to do Gymnastics and want to do Cheer full time instead. Just be prepared for that possible outcome.
 
Not a fun situation to be in. Being a parent is no fun sometimes, LOL.

I think you are making the right decision. At the level she is in, it makes it pretty hard to do other competitive sports/activities. Besides her commitment to the team, it also impacts families life, especially moms. Be strong and hang in there. I am sure there is plenty of guilt tripping to come. LOL.
 
Wishing you the best of luck getting through this week! I understand your position totally & I agree with you. I know how crazy it can be keeping multiple schedules organized & getting everyone were they need to be. My DD just finished her gymnastics season, while competing track for school. It was CRAZY busy!!! I'm just getting to my spring cleaning now, LOL! But the craziness didn't last for that long(8 weeks or so). She did it all & it was a great experience for her(nearly did me in though,LOL). I am glad things are settling down now. We couldn't have kept that crazy schedule going long term. And it sounds like cheer involves a lot more than track did. My DD didn't miss any gym meets or practices due to track...that was part of the deal. If there was a conflict she missed track & the track coaches were fine with that. Cheer just sounds like there is too much going on...too much time involved to do that & gym. JMHO, but I don't think DD(being a L8) should be missing gym meets & practices for cheer. If she agreed to be on the gym team, that's where her 1st loyalty should be. There's nothing wrong with switching to cheer, if that is more where her interest is heading. Or maybe she could try doing track & gym;)(if she wants a school sport). I think 12yrs is a tough age! They really do start getting pulled in many different directions. She has MANY options open to her!!! Just sayin' this cheer program doesn't sound like it's a good fit, to do along with gymnastics. But maybe something else might work out for her. Maybe she's feeling a little too boxed in by gymnastics & she wants to spread her wings a bit. I think it's great that she is active & social...she has a bright future mom!!! But you have to do what is best for your entire family:). Good luck to you & both of your DD's.
 
Well our experience with cheer was pretty much exactly the same as yours, gymmonkeymomma. The only difference is that my dd NEVER wants to do it again, LOL - she stuck it out (from Sept thru May) because she felt an obligation to not let the cheer team down, but by December she was done. She also hated all the hoopla, "team building", and most of all THE MAKEUP, LOL :D

I can also say that we were promised that if there were conflicts, gym would take precedence, but when push came to shove, my dd was definitely put between a rock and a hard place. Her heart was definitely at gym, but there was a lot of pressure to "not let the team down". Extra practices became the norm, too, when comp season began in earnest and many conflicts arose over that.

I'm quite sure there are many many kids who LOVE cheer, and are very good at it - I was quite impressed with the stunting in particular. It just, IMHO, doesn't make a good fit with artistic gymnastics.

Cheers,
Lisa
 
Cher - if it were the case that DD wanted to give up gym for some other sport (hopefully NOT cheer, lol) we would deal with that. Right now she just wants it all!!!

Gymjourneymom - track is great, and it would be after school and not interfere (too much) with gym! But in our district, we don't have any middle school afterschool programs due to scheduling, so it's not until they get to HS (if i live thru the next 2 years) that they will have opportunity to participate in sports after school. The HS gym team is waiting for her...she has been attending camp there for 3 summers....there's so much more to offer.
 
It's one day to tryouts and so far, DD has not said a thing! Could I be this lucky???? I told DH that if it comes up again, HE needs to address the issue, so I'm not always the meanie!

Last night DD had a particularly bad night, came out in tears, because "I hate Coach S, he is so mean, blah, blah, blah". :melodramatic: Apprently they were working straddle backs and she released too soon and banged her leg on the low bar. Instead of saying, I hurt myself can I get ice, she just took herself out of the harness and sat on the side. Coach yelled at her to get back up into the harness and she said NO. Boy, was I po'ed to hear that she was being so fresh, and I laid into her. Then she says "he doesn't even care about me" LMAO...I said well if you had used your words like a big girl and told him you needed to rest and ice your leg (not that I thought it was that bad of an injury, she was walking fine) then maybe he would know how you felt! Then she proceeds to tell me how he is yelling at her to get back on the bars (another situation) even though she had just gotten off. So I said well, he is trying to give you extra time, because I saw that you were trying your skills but not making them!!! I cannot find a banging head against the wall smiley so I'll use this one instead :fryingpan:
 
Well, yesterday was the first day of cheer tryouts and the night before, DD broached the subject with me and I said I've already told you that you are not trying out and you know how i feel about cheering. Then after school yesterday, a group of friends approached me with pouty faces, and I said unless you want Kelsey to get punished, you will stop this right now, and don't think I'm beyond punishing you girls too (because they hang out at each others' houses all the time and we all treat all of them like family). So the rest of the day went uneventfully with DD even being excited about the photo shoot at the gym last night (pics for their website that i'll share when its done!) Afterwards her friends from school texted her to tell her how hard they are making tryouts this year. I know she still wished she had been there but she didn't dare say a word!
 
Sounds like you have everything under control over there!

Once this week passes, she will be fine (but you already knew that! ;))
 
OMG now the coach is telling her friends, you HAVE to get Kelsey!! So I told her to tell her friend, to tell the coach, the only way it will happen is if they make the practices right after school and she has to be done by 5:15!!!
 
LOL, yes but you know even if they say that now, soon there will be extra practices, and competitions - and she can't let the team down, ya da ya da ya da ...... stay strong :D!

Lisa
 
I think Sparky has a very valid point. It would be easy to say now that your rules will apply, but when the itme comes you are going to have conflicts again. Like, 'Oh this is so imporant, please just this once let me skip gym' etc. It will only get worse once you say yes. I think it might be time to tell her that she has to choose one sport or the other. At some point in our dd's lives they do have to learn to make their own decisions and to learn to accept the consequences of them as well, and this might be a place to start.

Good luck
 

New Posts

DON'T LURK... Join The Discussion!

Members see FEWER ads

Gymnaverse :: Recent Activity

College Gym News

New Posts

Back