Parents First meet gift?

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lilymom

Proud Parent
Hi Moms! My daughter has her first meet ever in a week and half and I'm hearing that a lot about special gifts parents give for the first meet of the season. This is her first meet ever and she is very excited and nervous. I think a gift is a great idea but I don't know what to get! Any great gift ideas to share?
 
We never did anything for his first meet other than cheer, video and take pictures. the meet itself was his gift. He loved it. Maybe take a picture of her and frame it or something but this is something I never did. Maybe other moms did though.
 
What about a new leo? Although I agree, the meet itself with the pretty leo and hair and all the attention is a pretty good gift in itself.
 
In our area, there is always stuff for sale at meets and you can have it sent out to your child before awards. You may want to ask an experienced parent at your gym if they do this at the meet you are going to. The stuff for sale ranges from small things, like a candy bar, to pins to flowers to leos and other gymnastics clothing items. Yeah, it's a racket, but kids love it when the gift delivery comes around. Even now, I still usually send her some candy or something small. I also buy her a t-shirt from the "big" meets (out-of-state meets, States, etc.).
 
For DD1, the booster club president gave all new girls (first meet ever) the little teddy bears they sell at meets that said Level 4 (embroidered). For DD2, she got a candy gram :)
 
Not sure of your child's age but maybe a stuffed friend/lovey? My DD has taken the same stuffed animal to every single meet since L3. She kind of crashes after the meet while waiting for awards and she always pulls Lovey out and just hugs her while she refuels.

You could get her a special friend who will love her "no matter what she scores and no matter when she falls".
 
How about starting an inexpensive charm bracelet that you could add to on other occasions? For a meet you could do a gymnastics charm or a good-luck symbol like a four-leaf clover or a horseshoe.
 
We(meaning team moms) started getting the girls the candy grams and write something like "Way to rock it on your first meet as a level- # , Love mom & dad". Dd has also been collecting the Level bears. Best wishes on her 1st meet :)-very exciting!
 
We got my daughter a sweatshirt with the meet name from the first meet. It seems like they sell those at all the meets where we are. (The iron on kind.) We occasionally buy t-shirts with the meet name if it is a special meet we want to remember.
 
I never did a first meet gift, but we have done a few little things at meets... the first meet this season she was allowed to pick out a medal holder. At state, I had a special sweatshirt made with the State Championships logo on the front, names of all the girls that competed on the back, and "Bars Champion" written on the sleeve, for her 1st place win on bars. She is so proud of that sweatshirt. I always let her pick where to eat lunch/dinner and a little dessert on our way home after all the meets since most meets are at least 2 hrs away. I don't want her to get in the habit of getting a "prize" every meet. The experience and (if any) medals won should be the prize.
 
I was not able to be at my daughters first meet because my other daughter had an away allstar cheer competition. We got her a cute little monster bag from Justice that she had been wanting to carry her gymnastics stuff in. It was cute it had one eye and said "I've got my eye on you". At every other meet we've just done the candy grams and or flowers. This year we will probably pick up a few tshirts or hoodies since gymnastics clothing isn't easy to find.
 
I will warn you, as with so many things in parenting, to "start as you plan to finish." If the "special gift for your very first meet ever" gift leads to a "special gift for your second meet ever" gift, and so on, your DD will come to expect it and it will get very expensive very quickly. And you want to be sure that she's in gymnastics for the love of gymnastics and not for the love of the stuff she gets for being in gymnastics. Not to mention, if she has siblings who are NOT in gymnastics, they may start to resent all of the little gifties. I did too much of that kind of stuff at the beginning, but eventually had to put my foot down, and it turned out that my DD didn't really care about all that stuff anyway. She does treasure her shirts from her special meets though. Those are always the first thing she wears when they are clean.

I am in charge of vending for our home meet and we always know we'll sell the most stuff to the parents of the youngest kids. We sell a ton of stuff to levels 2, 3, 4... less to 5, 6, 7... practically nothing to 8, 9, and 10! Lucky for our booster club bank account, there are LOTS of kids at those lower levels! :)
 
My girls always pick out a pin at every meet and we stick them on their gym bag! They also know they get 1 new leotard and 1 clothing item during the season so they know to choose wisely!
 
I bought DD5 a $3 bouquet of flowers from the grocery store for her first meet ever. She loves flowers and we only get them for her for special occasions, like her birthday. She was thrilled, it was cheap, and all was good.
 
Thanks for all the ideas and thoughts! I like the stuffed animal idea and the flowers. I really just wanted something little to mark it I guess. Wasn't planning on anything more than flowers until I heard the other moms at the gym talking and wondered if this is something that's normally done :) thanks!
 
My dd got a customized medal holder to hang on her wall that she hangs her medals for the season on. Other then that no First meet gifts and that was 6 years ago and she still hangs her medals there.
 

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