So we went to DD's first meet this weekend. It was in a medium sized gym and there were two seating areas for parents. One area was folding chairs and the other area was bleachers. So as we all know bleachers can be crowded and you get to know the people around you very well by the end of the meet, lol. We had the girls that had competed the day before in the bleachers with us, they stayed to support their team. The girls ranged in age from 6-14. I will admit they were getting up frequently, which can be annying, but they were going to the restroom and snack bar and the older ones were getting up to take the little ones. The kids always said excuse me and thank you as they scooted by everyone.
There was a mom sitting at the very end of the bleachers by the stairs. About 1 hour into the meet as the girls walked past her to go potty she threw her hands up, looked at our group, and said "Oh my God. This is ridiculous. You need to have your children sit down and stop running around. I'm here to watch gymnastics, I don't know about you!" One of the Moms with me told her- "Are you serious? They're little kids and they're not running around. They're going to get food and go potty. Kids do that. You're at a kids sporting event, calm down" After that we tried to ignore her and have the kids go down the other side of bleachers but it was very uncomfortable. She kept giving us dirty looks. She started in on us again and one of our moms told her "that we have class and will not be responding to her drama." Of course that made her even more mad and more derogatory comments about our kids followed. As some of the girls were coming back up the stairs one of our older girls told them not to go that way or they'd get in trouble (referring to the lady). The lady turned around and told the girl ( a child!) that "she is a piece of trash." We were all kind of shocked at this point. The mother of the girl told the lady that she has no place talking to her daughter and to please stop talking to us and our children. For the rest of the meet the lady gave our little kids dirty looks. When one of the 6 year olds accidentally touched her she gave the child a very dirty look and sighed loudly.
These kids were not running wild. They were sitting quietly in the bleachers watching the meet. They weren't kicking anyone, making it hard for anyone to watch, etc. They did get up quite a bit but they're kids and they weren't getting up to run around wild. It was so shocking to me to see another parent act like this and especially in front of the children. I've never seen anything like it! Thought I would share the craziness and see if any of you would have handled it differently. We did speak to someone at the host gym just to give them a head up in case it escalated. They thanked us and apologized for the parent because she was from their gym. From then on one of the gym staff came and sat close to that mother and kept an eye on the situation, which we appreciated. Total craziness!!!
There was a mom sitting at the very end of the bleachers by the stairs. About 1 hour into the meet as the girls walked past her to go potty she threw her hands up, looked at our group, and said "Oh my God. This is ridiculous. You need to have your children sit down and stop running around. I'm here to watch gymnastics, I don't know about you!" One of the Moms with me told her- "Are you serious? They're little kids and they're not running around. They're going to get food and go potty. Kids do that. You're at a kids sporting event, calm down" After that we tried to ignore her and have the kids go down the other side of bleachers but it was very uncomfortable. She kept giving us dirty looks. She started in on us again and one of our moms told her "that we have class and will not be responding to her drama." Of course that made her even more mad and more derogatory comments about our kids followed. As some of the girls were coming back up the stairs one of our older girls told them not to go that way or they'd get in trouble (referring to the lady). The lady turned around and told the girl ( a child!) that "she is a piece of trash." We were all kind of shocked at this point. The mother of the girl told the lady that she has no place talking to her daughter and to please stop talking to us and our children. For the rest of the meet the lady gave our little kids dirty looks. When one of the 6 year olds accidentally touched her she gave the child a very dirty look and sighed loudly.
These kids were not running wild. They were sitting quietly in the bleachers watching the meet. They weren't kicking anyone, making it hard for anyone to watch, etc. They did get up quite a bit but they're kids and they weren't getting up to run around wild. It was so shocking to me to see another parent act like this and especially in front of the children. I've never seen anything like it! Thought I would share the craziness and see if any of you would have handled it differently. We did speak to someone at the host gym just to give them a head up in case it escalated. They thanked us and apologized for the parent because she was from their gym. From then on one of the gym staff came and sat close to that mother and kept an eye on the situation, which we appreciated. Total craziness!!!