I have posted a few times about my DD2 and the drama that she has had with her school ‘friends’ over gymnastics.
A little background info: In 2019 and into 2020, DD2 was XS. A group of her friends that she has been tight with since kindergarten are also gymnasts at another local gym who tries to pride themselves as ‘elite’ and they were all L3 at this ‘elite’ gym that actually only has one elite gymnast who was already elite before she transferred due to a parent relocating to our area for work. They haven’t ‘raised’ any elites. They at one point had my daughter singled out and down on herself because they told her over and over again that she wasn’t a real gymnast because XCEL gymnasts aren’t real gymnasts.
All gyms and schools were shut down for about 4 months and everyone kind of kept to themselves at the peak of the school drama. Once gyms reopened, their gym decided to create XCEL teams to make their JO teams a bit smaller. 1 of her friends was able to move to L4 because she scored well in the few meets that happened before the pandemic. The others were placed on XS because they didn’t score well and didn’t make the repeat L3 team due to some L2’s that needed placement.
So, the girls that just told my daughter that she wasn’t a real gymnast because she was XS were now competing at that level and my DD moved to Gold.
DD2 has thrived on Gold this season, not scoring below a 37 at any meet and has snagged 1st place AA’s at nearly every meet this past season, was a regional qualifier.
We have been on a very odd mixed school schedule this year, with her attending in-person and doing online schooling on alternating weeks. These ‘friends’ of hers were largely on the opposite schedule as her. The friend who was L4 was the only one in her cohort and they weren’t in the same classes, so they only saw each other at recess each day and that’s it. No drama between August to March.
Well, now everyone is back to school full time since March 1 and it has been nothing but drama since day 1 now that they are all back.
My DD hurt her foot at practice last week and was walking with a bit of a limp. We had her foot wrapped and had planned on getting X-rays later that day. She came home from school in tears because she said that her ‘friends’ didn’t believe that she was hurt so they forced her (at recess) take her shoe off to prove that her foot was bruised (badly sprained) and one of them stomped on her already bruised foot.
Mama bear came out and contacted this girls mom, the teachers, the principal, and the school counselor about this but, it all boiled down to this- according to this girls’ mom, she (the kid and likely the mom too) is ‘under a lot of stress right now’ because she really wants to compete L4 next year but the gym announced that only 2 of the XS girls will move up to 4 and the rest will repeat L3, so basically zero mobility for 3 consecutive seasons. She said that they are doing privates to get her L4 skills and that is what the other 3 are also doing. She said her DD is jealous of anyone her age that ‘brags’ about gymnastics, has anxiety, and sees a therapist.- so basically blaming my DD for ‘bragging’ and blaming her DD’s actions on gymnastics as a whole.
When I asked my DD2 if she was bragging to her friends (we have been very firm about keeping gym and school separate), she said no mommy they only asked me what level I am going to try to practice at this summer and I told them that I already know I am moving to L6, which is the truth. Our gym already has summer practice levels, groups, schedules, and camps set. Their gym has a few month period between state meets in March and May where they focus on uptraining and place summer practice groups accordingly and they are given a week’s notice as to what that group is going to be- and it’s not guaranteed that you will compete at that level, they have another roster that is made for September-May and those are the competition groups.
I am so over this drama. The silver lining in all of this is that we are in the process of building our dream home on land out in the country and we won’t have to deal with any of this drama after school is out in May. We are moving locally and DD2 will actually be at school with one of her best friends from the gym and when they are together, they play non-gymnastics things like typical 9 year olds should be doing.
Sorry for the long post, just needed to vent to some people who might understand.
A little background info: In 2019 and into 2020, DD2 was XS. A group of her friends that she has been tight with since kindergarten are also gymnasts at another local gym who tries to pride themselves as ‘elite’ and they were all L3 at this ‘elite’ gym that actually only has one elite gymnast who was already elite before she transferred due to a parent relocating to our area for work. They haven’t ‘raised’ any elites. They at one point had my daughter singled out and down on herself because they told her over and over again that she wasn’t a real gymnast because XCEL gymnasts aren’t real gymnasts.
All gyms and schools were shut down for about 4 months and everyone kind of kept to themselves at the peak of the school drama. Once gyms reopened, their gym decided to create XCEL teams to make their JO teams a bit smaller. 1 of her friends was able to move to L4 because she scored well in the few meets that happened before the pandemic. The others were placed on XS because they didn’t score well and didn’t make the repeat L3 team due to some L2’s that needed placement.
So, the girls that just told my daughter that she wasn’t a real gymnast because she was XS were now competing at that level and my DD moved to Gold.
DD2 has thrived on Gold this season, not scoring below a 37 at any meet and has snagged 1st place AA’s at nearly every meet this past season, was a regional qualifier.
We have been on a very odd mixed school schedule this year, with her attending in-person and doing online schooling on alternating weeks. These ‘friends’ of hers were largely on the opposite schedule as her. The friend who was L4 was the only one in her cohort and they weren’t in the same classes, so they only saw each other at recess each day and that’s it. No drama between August to March.
Well, now everyone is back to school full time since March 1 and it has been nothing but drama since day 1 now that they are all back.
My DD hurt her foot at practice last week and was walking with a bit of a limp. We had her foot wrapped and had planned on getting X-rays later that day. She came home from school in tears because she said that her ‘friends’ didn’t believe that she was hurt so they forced her (at recess) take her shoe off to prove that her foot was bruised (badly sprained) and one of them stomped on her already bruised foot.
Mama bear came out and contacted this girls mom, the teachers, the principal, and the school counselor about this but, it all boiled down to this- according to this girls’ mom, she (the kid and likely the mom too) is ‘under a lot of stress right now’ because she really wants to compete L4 next year but the gym announced that only 2 of the XS girls will move up to 4 and the rest will repeat L3, so basically zero mobility for 3 consecutive seasons. She said that they are doing privates to get her L4 skills and that is what the other 3 are also doing. She said her DD is jealous of anyone her age that ‘brags’ about gymnastics, has anxiety, and sees a therapist.- so basically blaming my DD for ‘bragging’ and blaming her DD’s actions on gymnastics as a whole.
When I asked my DD2 if she was bragging to her friends (we have been very firm about keeping gym and school separate), she said no mommy they only asked me what level I am going to try to practice at this summer and I told them that I already know I am moving to L6, which is the truth. Our gym already has summer practice levels, groups, schedules, and camps set. Their gym has a few month period between state meets in March and May where they focus on uptraining and place summer practice groups accordingly and they are given a week’s notice as to what that group is going to be- and it’s not guaranteed that you will compete at that level, they have another roster that is made for September-May and those are the competition groups.
I am so over this drama. The silver lining in all of this is that we are in the process of building our dream home on land out in the country and we won’t have to deal with any of this drama after school is out in May. We are moving locally and DD2 will actually be at school with one of her best friends from the gym and when they are together, they play non-gymnastics things like typical 9 year olds should be doing.
Sorry for the long post, just needed to vent to some people who might understand.
