Parents Buy a Bar or not to buy a Bar

[gymmom/coach]

Thanks everyone! Open gym is tomorrow unless her bowling field trip goes over time.

As for the cold it is about 0-20f normally in the winter here, sometimes it is much worse and then we have the crazy wind chill, but she doesnt go out much we are summer folk lol

 

[cher062]

I have to say some of the comments make me sound like I am a crazy mother who thinks if I buy her a bar I can push her and make her be the next Nastia. lol I have come up with a solution I am not buying a bar but only because I do not want to drop the 500$ on one. But I am going to take her to open gym time. I have some conflicts about the practice at home thing, I see it the same as buying my son a hoop. gymnastics just happens to be a lot more dangerous where there would need to be much more supervision. Thanks for the responses.

LOL your no more crazy than any of us when our kids just started out.

Ok folks fess up what equipment do you have at home, when did you buy it and how often is it used now.

For me we have a floor mat, an 8' floding beam for the floor a chin up bar. All were purchased at the end of the first year. For that summer all were used by the fall the chin up bar was used with the floor mat under but only on the vacation weeks. Now 7 years or so later the mat is used by me when I exercise, the chin up bar (probably the only at home item I would recommend we have an "Iron Gym" chin up bar and she does use it for more than chinups as you can use it on the floor too and for sit ups), the beam DD uses on occasion but only when she is working on a dance move that she might be falling on otherwise its in the corner collecting dust.

In the end most of the stuff is unused certainly not used on a regular basis. Even the chin up bar is only used for at home conditioning during the vacation weeks the coach give at home conditioning.

What I've learned over the 15 years of being involved in gymnastics (combined with son and dd). They get enough practice at gym, let home not be the secondary gym location if you don't have to. Better to add a second day at the gym, do privates or do open gym to practice skills IF you think your child will actually work on skills.

Ok who is next to fess up to being one of the crazed new gym moms buying the at home equipment when their girl first started out?

 

[bogwoppit]

LOL your no more crazy than any of us when our kids just started out.

Ok folks fess up what equipment do you have at home, when did you buy it and how often is it used now.

For me we have a floor mat, an 8' floding beam for the floor a chin up bar. All were purchased at the end of the first year. For that summer all were used by the fall the chin up bar was used with the floor mat under but only on the vacation weeks. Now 7 years or so later the mat is used by me when I exercise, the chin up bar (probably the only at home item I would recommend we have an "Iron Gym" chin up bar and she does use it for more than chinups as you can use it on the floor too and for sit ups), the beam DD uses on occasion but only when she is working on a dance move that she might be falling on otherwise its in the corner collecting dust.

In the end most of the stuff is unused certainly not used on a regular basis. Even the chin up bar is only used for at home conditioning during the vacation weeks the coach give at home conditioning.

What I've learned over the 15 years of being involved in gymnastics (combined with son and dd). They get enough practice at gym, let home not be the secondary gym location if you don't have to. Better to add a second day at the gym, do privates or do open gym to practice skills IF you think your child will actually work on skills.

Ok who is next to fess up to being one of the crazed new gym moms buying the at home equipment when their girl first started out?

Cher, how about you start a new thread and put the link here. That way the OP's discussion remains intact and I don't have to get all cranky about hijacks!!!

I agree that most parents have moments of crazy when they first start out. AT my point I do not have the energy for crazy, and all my money is spent on fees or gas.

 

[cher062]

Cher, how about you start a new thread and put the link here. That way the OP's discussion remains intact and I don't have to get all cranky about hijacks!!!

I agree that most parents have moments of crazy when they first start out. AT my point I do not have the energy for crazy, and all my money is spent on fees or gas.

I don't know how to put the link. Didn't mean to hijack thats for sure. I will start a new thread but if you would put the link I would appreciate it.

 

[bogwoppit]

Thanks Cher. JBS likes a tidy thread. Here is the link tothe new thread.

http://www.chalkbucket.com/forums/parent-forum/36160-fess-up-what-have-you-bought.html


In order to add a link, just go tothe new thread, copy the URL, then return and paste.

 

[mtbmom]

I was supposed to teach her to brush her teeth??? :jaw-dropping: Nobody told me this!!!

No wonder the Dentist always gives me a generous Christmas gift. I thought it was 'cause I'm so CUTE!

yikes! i was a dad and coach also. she's only 5. save your money. home is home. "teach" her how to brush her teeth and tie her shoes. the good stuff. home is home.

Seriously OP, doesn't matter if you're a Coach or not... Home is home as Dunno said. Can't imagine she has that many skills to "lose" at 5. Are 5 year olds really consistent enough to lose skills???

 

[gymmom/coach]

wow you are kind of rude. Obviously she knows how to brush her teeth and tie her shoes. She just recently got her pullover and told me she was sad after class, when I asked why she said because she lost her pullover. By the way, you better not teach your kids anything other than life skills at home because hey home is home. Not school or the gym or a court or a track or whatever else they might do there.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

i forgive you. you don't know me yet. or mtbtmom for that matter. many of us here enjoy lively discussions along with perspective and a sense of humor. then how about just relaxing and watching the sound of music or mary poppins, etc; if you are a coach, i have to assume you were an athlete also at another time.

both my sister and myself were high level athletes. my sister was better than i and competed at olympic trials in 76. didn't make the team though.

don't you remember being a gymnast? all those nights riding home in the car and your mom or dad asking "what did you do tonight", "how did practice go?", "learn anything new?" and you were tired, frustrated, aggravated and in pain? the last thing you wanted to talk about was gymnastics?

home is home. gym is for gym. popcorn and a movie and no discussion of gymnastics is what works for the long haul. listen now or pay later. i was also the parent of a level 10 gymnast daughter. and i'm a coach. and you have no experience being both at the moment. this is not being rude...sincere and forthright are better words.

parents of gymnasts that were never gymnasts and do not coach are constantly at a disadvantage and find it difficult to navigate the gymnastics landscape. if you are a coach and are a former gymnast is where you will find even more difficulties if you are not careful with your own daughter. andrea beiger could educate you. melissa marlowe also.

you must accept that you are going forward in unchartered waters. your experience will not be your daughters. getting her a bar will not change anything as to her gymnastics future. that she is frustrated is what you must parent. not getting her a bar to fix her frustration.

if you can't 'see' the wisdom and experience in all this i offer my regrets for not being able to convey my 'old' and experienced thoughts more effectively.

and i too was "sad" once at a young age. a death in the family. and i too lost my kip at a young age like thousands of other kids since the beginning of time. i surely wasn't "sad". and i was 7.

so here's how it went in my mom and dad's household when it had to do with sports. you came home upset over a bad work out or that the coach yelled at us. my dad would take out the obituaries section of the newspaper. he explained what those were. and then stated "you should be thankful that you are alive another day to enjoy what you're now complaining about because tumbling would be very difficult 6 feet in the ground. now go have something to eat, get your homework done and help your brother (or sister or whoever was chosen) with theirs and come "down" and we'll play monopoly (or some other board game or 'fish'). the sun will still come up tomorrow and it will be a new day and you will make of it what you will".

 

[funflips]

Dunno, really like that post. We are so blessed to have another day and usually don't even realize it. Sometimes we get way to caught up in things that are really small in the grand scheme of things. I am not trying to say our kids feelings aren't important. One of our teaches just lost her husband, and her young daughters just lost their dad unexpectedly right before Christmas. They are sad. I am so sad for them.

 

[mtbmom]

Just bringing a bit of levity to the thread. You can do what you want. When you saw that ppl advise against getting the bar you wrote of taking her to open gym and coaching her there. Your choice, your kid.... But it won't help her gymnastics and will more likely (way more likely) hurt her gymnastics in the long run.

If you feel she is not getting enough instruction in the gym, than sign her up for more classes when the next session starts. You're not holding her back. She is only 5. There is plenty of time to learn and lose many many skills.

 

[gymmom/coach]

ok then....I will be an involved parent no matter what the situation is homework sports math club whatever..I will ask my child how practice went and yes I do remember my parents asking me how it went thats what parents do they ask you about your day...your opinion is different than my opinion and we will leave it at that.