Parents does your gymnast have outside activities?

[Natalia]

[/quote]Iwannabemargo, post: "Boring!", tag rugby - "can I do full contact" "NO!". For her its gym, gym gym. [/quote]

DD recently tried full contact rugby with some girls from the gym.I decided to go watch them.

My kid had the ball,she looks over her shoulder and sees all these kids coming straight for her.....she drops the ball,puts her hands up in the air and shouts"I'm not playing anymore!"I'm still laughing writing about it.

 

[Fliptwisttumble]

DD is 9, and competes equivalent to approx. US L8. She is in the gym 25 hours. Over time she has dropped all other activities: soccer, swimming, ballet, piano. Her choice - if she wanted to continue I'd have made it happen, but 5 days x 5 hours she just wants the rest to chill.

 

[Bajanswife]

My 10 (almost 11) year old DD only does gym after school. In school she of course does PE, which may be athletics, cross country, net ball etc. She used to swim a bit, but didn't want to continue. She did jazz dance for a little while too, but stopped. She only has time for academics in addition to gym this year.

 

[Sixmonkeyjungle]

My DD7 is a rising L4 and also a competitive dancer. She has known for over a year that she will have to choose - when, not if - is the question. So far she has lucked out but I am feeling pretty burnt out and I am seeing especially this season all the ways gym is hurting her dance, while dance is helping her gym. I will be glad when this phase of her life is over. Both are year round deals so it's a lot (for me).

She is also in Girl Scouts and plays piano. She would compete in everything if I let her. She loved and competed in TKD when she was five. This year she's on a Destination imagination team which she thinks is the greatest thing ever.

 

[GYM0M]

My DD7 is a rising L4 and also a competitive dancer. She has known for over a year that she will have to choose - when, not if - is the question. So far she has lucked out but I am feeling pretty burnt out and I am seeing especially this season all the ways gym is hurting her dance, while dance is helping her gym. I will be glad when this phase of her life is over. Both are year round deals so it's a lot (for me).

We were told to make a choice this year by her gym coaches. She chose gym. My DD is only 7 and it crushed me to see her have to give up something she enjoyed so much! It was for the best though. Her gymnastics has improved so much! She has gotten her back walkover back handspring on beam and she made the TOpS Diamond team this year!

 

[GYM0M]

Well that didn't work out so swell..... My reply is in the quote box! Still new to this CB mobile thing! LOL

 

[emorymom]

Well yes but my kids only work out 9-12 hours/week. And they are home schooled. So music practice is part of the school day. Etc.

 

[my4buffaloes]

My older dd is a level 8 and is in the gym for 16 hours a week. She runs the video equipment for the morning announcements. Other than that nothing.

My younger dd is a level 4 and is in the gym 12 hours a week. She plays the drums and the violin. Drums outside of school and violin in school.

We try to do camps in the summer for other things they are interested in or want to try. I can't squeeze anything else into our weeks during the school year.

 

[OwlGalLiz]

My DS is new to all this- he is a (soon to be six) level 4 in Kindy. He dabbled in other sports, but at age 3.5 when he discovered gymnastics- well that was it. He will be in Scouts next year- he is too young now but frequently tags along as a "me too". He is in the gym 6 hours a week, so on non-gym days he has time to play. We supplemental homeschool (he wants to learn so much- particularly science) and I am teaching him piano. But most important is that he (and the two other team gymnasts on our street- one age 6 the other 8) get to be boys and have fun with the other boys on the street. just being boys.

 

[gymmiemom]

For years our rule has always been only 1 thing at a time. With 4 kids their 1 thing each is pretty much all I can do. But since my DD started gymnastics, moved to team, traines 12-14 hours a week and has never done anything else I have asked her if she wants to play soccer, or basketball, or whatever. But the answer is always no. Whenever I bring it up her response is always, "Could I just have more hours at the gym?"

 

[gymmom14]

I have been reading this thread for a while now and am going to give you all my thoughts. Many of you may not agree, but here it goes. My dd is a junior in high school. She started on a Level 4 team with about 15 girls. There are about 2 left in the gym, and the 2 that are left were definitely not the most talented. While I know the dedication this sport takes to be successful, please try and remember that the chance of your child still being in gymnastics as a high school junior is pretty small, from my experience. Life is a balancing act. You don't want your child to eventually leave gymnastics and not have experienced other things or define themselves only as a gymnast. I have always told my daughter she not a gymnast, she is a bright, funny, intelligent young lady who does gymnastics, a lot!!

Please take my advise for what its worth, I didn't mean to offend.

 

[aksaunders]

My L7 DD is a day student at her gym. She takes this very seriously to be only 8 years old and she is home schooled so no additional school activities. She is the bat girl for her older sister's softball team but the seasons don't overlap. Other than that, it is all gymnastics all the time for her.

 

[Azgymmiemom]

My kids are homeschooled, and we go try whatever they think they want to get themselves into. My ds quit competitive baseball to concentrate more on gymnastics about 2 years ago. He's never regretted the decision. My dd has never wanted to do another sport, but she has done dance and really likes it(she even competed a couple of times)...just not as much as gym. They are of the age now where they want to do music lessons. They both want to play the guitar, bc that's what my oldest son plays. So, they are starting that right after Christmas break. They are both gun safety certified and are both really great target shooters. My dd wants to try archery now, too. They've done snowboarding, horseback riding, waterskiing, swimming, boating,ice skating, trapeze(that one is super cool...they love that!)-there's more, I'm sure, that I am forgetting. These are just the ones they have asked to do again and again.

I'm really not worried that they won't be able to go on to another sport if they quit gym. My experience with seeing other gymnasts quit is that, whatever other sport they decide to try, they usually pick it up quickly and the coaches want them!

My dd is in the gym roughly 26 hr a week and my ds, 16 hrs. I let them take a day off here and there if I think they need one. They don't often ask for one, lol!

 

[SurpriseGymMom]

I have been reading this thread for a while now and am going to give you all my thoughts. Many of you may not agree, but here it goes. My dd is a junior in high school. She started on a Level 4 team with about 15 girls. There are about 2 left in the gym, and the 2 that are left were definitely not the most talented. While I know the dedication this sport takes to be successful, please try and remember that the chance of your child still being in gymnastics as a high school junior is pretty small, from my experience. Life is a balancing act. You don't want your child to eventually leave gymnastics and not have experienced other things or define themselves only as a gymnast. I have always told my daughter she not a gymnast, she is a bright, funny, intelligent young lady who does gymnastics, a lot!!

Please take my advise for what its worth, I didn't mean to offend.

Definitely no offense taken! My gymmie was one that tried umpteen activities before finding "her thing". She has done ballet, baseball, soccer, hand chime orchestra, jazz, musical theatre, hip hop, ice skating, piano, choir, art club and taekwondo. She did rec gymnastics for 2yrs before being asked to do TOPs, did that for 5mo while still doing hip hop and taekwondo and managed to do that when she was asked to do team in the spring (old L4/new L3). She only just had to choose late this summer when she was chosen to join the 4/5 team. I am confident that she will be able to go on and be a well rounded individual whether she continues with gymnastics until college or not. Personally, I think she will probably opt for cheer or something else in a few years because she's not super naturally talented as a gymnast BUT she may surprise me and keep working hard and be a L10 some day. Either way, as long as she's happy, I'm good.
It may be different to me since I come from a personal background of competitive sports.... I quit at 14. My older dd does a highly involved sport/art form (ballet) which is just as time consuming as gym. This is normal to us...

 

[l.c.o]

My DD is still in elementary school, and does not have any other "official" interests. She's in the gym now 16 hours per week, so there isn't much time. We've discussed her trying other things, but she always says that she loves gymnastics too much more than anything else, and that she'd rather rest or do "other random fun things" when she's out of the gym. She rather be able to go roller skating with friends or to the zoo, etc.

That said, up until a year or so ago I used to make her try at least 1-2 new things per year, so she's tried swim, softball, soccer, basketball, dance, cross country running, etc. They just all seem to pale in comparison to gym in her eyes... and she then thinks "what's the point?" She's a perfectionist at heart, so the effort required to be "perfect" at any of those things is just too much for her when you consider any returns in enjoyment.

Next year she's required to try a musical instrument at her school. So, we'll see where that leads.

 

[dani4]

This is all so interesting to me... I grew up doing lots of organized activities after school, up until high school when I started commuting 2 hours a day to school and didn't do anything outside of school-sanctioned activities. My husband didn't really do anything, he's artistic and athletic but he's 13 years older than me and I think people just didn't do extra curriculars when he was growing up in the 70s. So he's opposed to "over-scheduling" our kids, and I do agree that they need LOTS of free time (especially when they are little) but I think we disagree on the definition of over-scheduling. It's not like it was in the old days, kids don't just run around outside looking for fun... everyone is doing something organized after school so you either sit alone at home or you get into some program (OK maybe not SO extreme- we do have kids on our block who play together outside during the few non-rainy months of the year in our city).

I'm also realizing that my mom probably didn't encourage me to keep swimming competitively because she must have seen that it was going to eat up all the after school (and weekend- for meets) time, and she wanted to keep me in hebrew school and piano lessons (I hated both and would have gladly done hours and hours of swimming instead).

I hope that I can be more responsive to my own kids' wishes and desires, though there will probably be some things that they will not want to do, and the answer will be "tough luck"... for example DD (4 3/4) has just informed me that she's sick of school. She goes 4 half days per week to preschool, and I know that she actually has a great time there.. sorry kiddo! Maybe the winter break will be enough to make her want to go back.

 

[MaryA]

OT rambling based on Dani4's post...
I was thinking last night about how different things are now than when I was growing up. I just signed my other DD up for a fine arts camp for next summer (there's one thing that has changed... the need to sign kids up for summer camp before Christmas, for Pete's sake! But there's a big discount if I sign her up before the first of the year, and she says she's sure she wants to go, so...) and she said she wants to do dance and art but not theater. It made me think about how, when I was her age, I tried out for every single school play and never even made call-backs. Ever. Not once. I was thinking about how, if one of my kids really wanted to be in the school plays but wasn't making the cut, I would probably sign them up for an after-school theater program to help them get better at it. But that wasn't an option then. My parents just told me, "better luck next time" and I worked on the set and did make-up and stuff. Not sure if it's better or worse, but it's definitely different. When I was growing up, if you weren't naturally good at something, you pretty much didn't make the (cast, team, squad, etc.). Now, if there's something you WANT to do, there are ways you can get better at it. Generally these are things you PAY for rather than try out for. The after-school theater group, soccer clinics, private lessons, etc. Other than music lessons, I don't think those things existed back then in the same way they do now.