Parents How do you feel . . .

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before and during your dd's meets?

(Another member's comment about feeling as if she was going to have a stroke before a meet inspired me to start this thread . . .)

A few days before my dd's first meet last year, we were ice skating on our pond, and I was helping our 3-year-old dd skate for about a half hour. Afterwards, my legs were really sore, which is odd for me, and I resignedly attributed the soreness to my aging body. I was surprised when the soreness didn't go away. Since those silly legs were still sore the day of the meet 3 days later, I dressed in a warm-up outfit. I watched the meet with a mixture of excitement and apprehension and had fun. As soon as the meet was over, my legs stopped aching! Even though I'd thought it was odd because I'd never been so sore from helping a little one skate or anything before, I never dreamed that my legs were really sore because of my nervousness for dd! Isn't that wild? (I also get really nervous and excited for our oldest dd before her theatrical and vocal performances, but I feel that more in a nervous energy and in my stomach than in my legs.)
At following meets, my legs still got achy and/or shaky, but less and less so with each meet. Maybe this year, they won't be affected at all! ;)
 
I am always very nervous for Abby before her meet. I never sleep well, partly because I am NOT a morning person and am terrified we will wake up late and miss her meet, partly because of nerves. I am anxious in general, so probably explains a lot. LOL.

I can't watch her at meets. I videotape and watch through the little screen and it makes me less nervous. I have never seen her compete with my own eyes.

I worry so much about her doing well. I worry about what all this "competitive stuff" might do to her self esteem. Worry she will get hurt, etc. I really am not cut out to be a gym mom or any kind of sport mom.

I secretly hope that she will eventually decide theatre/singing is her first love and switch to that, just gotta wait until she is old enough for more programs to be available to her and for them to make it so she has to make a decision. She does love it, but doesn't get to do it enough.
 
I never sleep well before dd's meets and she has been competing for 6 yrs now. I'm always up before the crack of dawn and I really can't eat until after the meet (could use a drink though! :eek:) All the while she has no problems pounding down the food and going about her business like it is nothing.

While she is competing, I usually don't breathe. I realize that I can hold my breath underwater for an easy 1.5 minutes, if I were forced to - I've had plenty of practice. I don't see things changing anytime soon, but at least I know the pattern now! ;)
 
Great idea for a thread!

When Bean competes, each day begins with a sleep defecit. I usually wake up repeatedly throughout the night, seeing just about every hour on the clock, for fear of sleeping in. Since about 3/4 of her meets have had an 8am march in, I'm usually heading into a 4-5 hour stretch with nothing of any nutrition value in me. Actually, usually nothing at all, except a coffee from Timmies.

My stomach stays in excited knots until after she's done on each apparatus, and like Granny Smith, I also tend to hold my breath while she competes! That can lead to feeling light-headed, and after beam especially, shaky.

When we arrive home, all returns to normal, but I'm always left feeling completely spent, and have always put everyone to bed early so I can crash!

Sounds slightly dreadful when I read it, but it's really one of my favourite ways to spend a day! Watching my little girl shine, and seeing the pride of accomplishment in her eyes!
 
I can't watch her at meets. I videotape and watch through the little screen and it makes me less nervous. I have never seen her compete with my own eyes.

I worry so much about her doing well. I worry about what all this "competitive stuff" might do to her self esteem. Worry she will get hurt, etc. I really am not cut out to be a gym mom or any kind of sport mom.

I secretly hope that she will eventually decide theatre/singing is her first love and switch to that, just gotta wait until she is old enough for more programs to be available to her and for them to make it so she has to make a decision. She does love it, but doesn't get to do it enough.

That is me too. I shake and snap at everyone when shes on the floor and watch through the video camera.

Not sure about the singing being better. My older DD aged 13 sang a solo in a big theatre show in Manchester in June and it was just the same. I shook and sweated and couldn't breathe while she was singing. I felt like fainting. I just was desparate for her to sing like I know she can. She did. I try to be calm and encouraging in front of them and just go to pieces inside. Letting your children stand on their own feet and take what life throws at them is definitely the hardest lesson to learn as a parent.
 
Wow, we're like long lost sisters - same rituals, except I don't drink coffee, but hot chocolate from Wawa!!!! ;)

Great idea for a thread!

When Bean competes, each day begins with a sleep defecit. I usually wake up repeatedly throughout the night, seeing just about every hour on the clock, for fear of sleeping in. Since about 3/4 of her meets have had an 8am march in, I'm usually heading into a 4-5 hour stretch with nothing of any nutrition value in me. Actually, usually nothing at all, except a coffee from Timmies.

My stomach stays in excited knots until after she's done on each apparatus, and like Granny Smith, I also tend to hold my breath while she competes! That can lead to feeling light-headed, and after beam especially, shaky.

When we arrive home, all returns to normal, but I'm always left feeling completely spent, and have always put everyone to bed early so I can crash!

Sounds slightly dreadful when I read it, but it's really one of my favourite ways to spend a day! Watching my little girl shine, and seeing the pride of accomplishment in her eyes!
 
I don't have problems sleeping the night before, but do get nervous for her (both Sami & Beth--heck, I even get nervous when Becca or Luke plays in a game for their sports!). I think I hold my breath the whole time.
 
This is a great thread.

The night before a meet, I toss and turn thinking about her routines (like I can do anything to control them!). I usually wake up and can't eat anything, which is extremely unusual for me.

I keep a just-not-quite-right stomach until the meet starts, then I am completely fine. I know......weird.

Two years ago at state meet, I was a complete wreck. My stomach was so upset. I thought I was gonna throw up everywhere. After about 15 minutes into the meet, it all went away.

Like others, my dd is completely fine. You would think I was the one competing......not her.
 
Last year was so traumatic, I had both girls compete on the same weekend, but never at the same time. Our meets are always over an hour away and usually early. So I didn't sleep for two nights, felt like throwing up as that's what stress and faking it in front of the kids does to me.

During meets I too record as it's easier to watch, the only thing that I really hate watching is beam as that can get really ugly sometimes. I also try never to watch the warm ups and I find it affect the way I feel going into the meet. You know what happeds in warm ups should stay in warm ups!

In trying to get food into the child of the day, I don't feed myself, as I could still throw up. I now take food with me so I don't have to buy crap at the meet.

I am much better when I get with my little group of gym parents, I have become really close to a couple of them and that really helps as we all seem to genuinely care about the girls. Some clubs are downright nuts.

Good thread, nice to see many of us feel the same way.
 
I am usually fine right up until the meet starts. Then I am over the top nervous. After it is over my muscles always kill me from being so tense the entire time. This year I am really going to try and let it go. She is competing L7 and I have no expectations as she is the ONLY 1st year 7 in the group. She has her own goals and my only hope is that she makes those. The HC has hopes of her making regionals (yes, 7's go to regionals here in region 8) but I told her to get that thought out of her head. No need for the extra pressure. We don't compete until Jan so I have lots of time to get my nerves worked up :)
 
I know I am always a stressed out mess.Trouble sleeping can't eat my stomach a knotted mess. I don't feel better until it is over ,then I am starved to death and exhausted.
 
I sleep okay the night before a meet ~ once I get to sleep! I will toss and turn for what seems like forever, worrying about how she's going to do the next day, or if I set the alarm or not. Olivia on the other hand sleeps like a rock. Why is that? I think it's some kind of mother/child thing where we take on all the nerves for them so they don't have to feel it. Something like that because I too feel sick to my stomach the whole time she's out there and she doesn't seem phased by it.

I also watch through my video camera, which kind of stinks. I really need to get a tripod. My biggest problem is if I'm video taping, and something goes wrong, I put the camera down! :rolleyes: So, I will hopefully get a tripod before her first meet.
 
The level 3 meets we go to are about 1.5 hours away and in order to relieve some pressure we always drive up the night before. But of course there is a ritual.

All the parents that come up the night before tend to stay in the same hotel. We get checked in and then meet up with whoever is there and figure out dinner and the girls plan on meeting up afterward at the indoor pool.

They never seem too affected.

DW always struggles with sleeping through the night, lucky for me I do not. :) DW then does Midget's hair while I get everything packed up and in the car and we all head to breakfast. None of us seem to exhibit nervousness to the point we cannot eat that I have noticed anyway.

During the meet is when the nerves hit for me. For me, even though I am recording it I am wound as tight as I can be. I want her to do so well, and I know her personality. Last year when she had her first fall she was so apologetic to us and her coach and it broke my heart. I am still not sure that she understands we want her to do her best for her, not for us.

After it is all over it such a relief, and we always celebrate by going to lunch with a few of the other families.
 
I also find myself laying in bed and visualizing her routines and the corrections she has been working on. I stress myself out as a worry about worst case sceneros. I spend the whole day of the meet completely stressed out. I am unable to do anthing but stress. If the meet is late in the day the whole day is a waste. I do nothing but watch the clock. If hubbie can come to the meet he does all the video taping. He has a much steadier hand then I. At meet I write down the scores for our whole team and often our girls in her age group. I find that this keeps me busy and is much better for my nerves then waiting for DD turn to compete. As soon as the meet is over I am starving since I can't ever remember when I ate last.
 
pretty much like a 2 liter bottle of Pepsi that someone shook up and set back on the counter without loosening the cap.
 
I don't really get nervous before a meet, but once the competition starts, it's like someone hit a panic button in me! I don't stress to much about floor or vault, but beam just about kills me. I don't think I even breath. As she moves up levels and the routines get longer, this could become a problem, lol. She has her first L4 meet this week-end and I'm hoping to be cool, calm, and collected, yeah, right! As long as she's calm, that's all that matters!
 
Glad I am not the only one who can't sleep before her kids meet. LOL. I don't eat breakfast either, just coffee. I always need a nap when we get home from an early start time meet. I am not a morning person, combined with not sleeping well and it just gets me. LOL.
 
I wasn't going to reply but the orginator of this thread said I had to. I am so rock solid that there isn't really anything to discuss... YEA RIGHT!!! LOL

I get fairly nervous like most people mentioned and I am a pacer. Back and forth, back and forth. I cannot sit still. Most of the time I cannot even watch beam or if I do it is from 400 miles away. I sometimes will just watch our other moms and try to read their reactions.. I am a wimp.. :)

Recently though, Cait and I have developed a little bit of a pre meet ritual that seems to calm us both down. I am a big fan of visualization. On the drive to the meet, we go through her routines one by one and she visualizes herself nailing each one of them. It sets her mind up into a postive mental attitude. It is what I used to do when I competed athletically and it really is a great tool.

Okay, I have posted. Hopefully the boss will appreciate it... LOL

Sean
 
Great topic!

Well, the first year she was only 6 and sort of thrown into it...we all were. Not knowing anything about gymnastics or what meets were like, worrying about making a sectional score and then a state score...UGH! Then there was worrying about getting to meets and how good were the other gyms in same session since I really wanted DD to at least win something her first year! Our ritual was not talking about the meets, trying not to worry, and stress over it...but inside I was DYING! I was so nervous for DD, always worrying about if she belonged on a team as she was always placing last. It's a lot of money to spend if your DD is not improving! I worried about her getting hurt, since she had so many problems when she was born. I worried about her keeping up with her friends, since we knew she was so physically limited when she was born we didn't know how it would play out in such a physical sport with so much physical demands. Maybe there would come a time when she physically couldn't do something! I hardly slept that first year, LOL. During the meets I would be in the bathroom before and after each event. My stomach would be in knotts and I would break out in a cold sweat. I couldn't eat until we were done.

Second year felt so much different. I felt like we survived, we were in the "know" now about the meets, gyms, routines...we all had a new found confidence! I was enjoying her win on the podium almost every meet....it was great....until the vault crash! Two meets and two crashes! By the end of the season I was back to having mini anxiety attacks just not knowing if she would either crash or not go over at all. Then there was the fractured heel and not knowing about states and fighting her on it for 6 weeks!

This year as a new L5, I feel almost like the first year of L4, LOL, will she go over that table? Does she know the floor yet? UGH! I don't run to the bathroom as much anymore (yeah!) but I still feel it in my stomach and have a hard time eatting anything other than a bagel maybe. I do try very hard to keep it on the inside. We still don't talk about it beofre or dwell on anything that went wrong after. We try to keep to the small picture and small goals and just self improvement. I do know she is a tough girl and don't worry so much about her limitations as much as I worry about the fears now. This year w/the vault makes it tough to watch. Yesterday I was in line for the bathroom of course and it was almost her turn to go & there I was in line thinking should I go in and maybe miss one of the two vaults, get out of line and watch her while I pee myself, go slow and miss both or go quick and get both runs. I ended up getting in and out and watched from the doorway. The thought of missing her very first official L5 meet made me feel worse than the anxiety of watching, LOL

So, I am thinking I will never be comfortable watching, I will just survive, but I wouldn't want to miss a thing since we are so proud of her. She will never be one that people will talk about as a talent, but she is a fighter and works hard for her opportunity at any recognition.
 
I'm terrible nervous for my daughter.Can't sleep the night before.Feel like throwing up in the morning.Can't breath once we're at the meet site.It's not because I want to go around and brag but I want her to do good for herself.All these girls work so hard.
Seems to get worse the higher the Level.At least for me.I used to not be that nervous.
Well I think I would be nervous no matter what my kids do.It's the same when my middle one plays sports in school.
 

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