Empowered
Proud Parent
- Mar 19, 2009
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So my daughter was very quiet in the car coming home from gym a few days ago and it took me about 15 minutes to realize she was sitting in the dark crying. I asked her why she was upset and she said that her coach told her, "If you get 8's in gymnastics you are failing". My daughter, who gets 8's way more than 9's has always known she wasn't a superstar, but she's never thought she was a failure, until now. And I may just be a stupid gym parent, but getting through levels 4-6 without repeating and moving to L7 training by age 10 doesn't seem like failing to me, regardless of what her scores are.
So now I have a kid making the jump to optional gymnastics feeling like she's spend the last 3 years failing. I've never seen her so defeated and that is saying a lot considering she's been kicked by this sport continuously since she started. She had a different coach tell her the night before States last year that she was "wasting her parents money being in gymnastics" so literally, she's been kicked and kicked hard.
Does it ever get any better or is my child just going to suffer through inconsiderate coaches and barbed comments until she eventually quits. Though maybe that's the point of the comments, to try and push my daughter who gymnastics will always be a struggle for out of the sport to make way for a natural talent. But then just tell me that. Tell me you don't want my child on your team instead of making her feel like crap.
Is it too dang much to ask for a program that can push a child AND support a child without isulting a child? Is it too much to ask for a program that will look at what my daughter CAN do and appreciate her strengths and her ferocious desire to do this sport, instead of just seeing a horribly inflexible kid who is a failure?
How can I not hate this sport? And how come my daughter has to love it so much...
So now I have a kid making the jump to optional gymnastics feeling like she's spend the last 3 years failing. I've never seen her so defeated and that is saying a lot considering she's been kicked by this sport continuously since she started. She had a different coach tell her the night before States last year that she was "wasting her parents money being in gymnastics" so literally, she's been kicked and kicked hard.
Does it ever get any better or is my child just going to suffer through inconsiderate coaches and barbed comments until she eventually quits. Though maybe that's the point of the comments, to try and push my daughter who gymnastics will always be a struggle for out of the sport to make way for a natural talent. But then just tell me that. Tell me you don't want my child on your team instead of making her feel like crap.
Is it too dang much to ask for a program that can push a child AND support a child without isulting a child? Is it too much to ask for a program that will look at what my daughter CAN do and appreciate her strengths and her ferocious desire to do this sport, instead of just seeing a horribly inflexible kid who is a failure?
How can I not hate this sport? And how come my daughter has to love it so much...