Parents How do your non-gymnast children cope with gymnastics?

[skschlag]

My older ds is 14 and 6'3" gymnatsis was never on his radar. He did parent-tot and it was disastrous. However he has excelled in science olympiad, and robotics. And while those aren't spectator events per se, he enjoys sharing what he learns wtih us, an we love the tournamants. He is also an amazing photographer and programmer, so he shares that with us as well. Hehelps out by wokring bingo with us to support the gymnastics and the family, and we pay him for that (he needed some incentive!). He is very supportive of his brother and vice versa. He does not, however, enjoy meets, but will go and cheer a few times a year.

 

[sce]

I only have 2 and they both do gym. Not sure if the younger one would have stuck with it to make the team had she not spent so many hours watching during big brother's practices. She really wanted to be like those big girls.

My son is very clear that gym is his priority and does not miss it for other things. Dd loves gym and loves competing even more, but also loves theater. Since has less hours at gym so we worked to fill them with complimentary activities. Thus, she also dances, which helps her gym and theater, and gets her another chance to be on a stage. She loves to be on stage.

We really work to teach them to support each other, but also recognize that the hours of watching and traveling etc is not easy. I splurge for extras, like concession stand food, just because it makes it more fun for them. (If ds' coach saw him eat a doughnut and drink a rootbeer at dd's meets ) Ds was pretty whiny about dd's meets in the fall, but he was ultra supportive this spring.

Dd really rooted for ds to get to regionals this year though, as we will also be going to Disneyland!

 

[dynamicduo]

My oldest 2 are the gymmies and often times our family has to divide and conquer the kids activities. I also have a 8 year old DS who does gym 1x a week in an advanced rec class and he was asked to join team twice but declined because he love all the "seasonal" sports, so every few months he's doing a different sport. Right now, lots and lots of baseball!!

YDS is 5 and has basically grown up in the gym and he just joined the beginning T&T class because he was getting tired of the rec classes. My DDs are hoping he will join the T&T team eventually because they want to see me run out of money, whoops I mean, they want another gymmie in the family! But he just started Tball and loves that too!!

So, with 4 active kiddos, we are always at one kind of sporting event! Often times I travel to the meets with the girls and the boys stay at home with Dad so he can take them to their games on the weekends. For big meets (state, travel ones..) we go as a whole family! Works for us!

 

[GYM0M]

he was ultra supportive this spring.

Dd really rooted for ds to get to regionals this year though, as we will also be going to Disneyland!

I love this! My kids are all supportive of one another, but there's a special bond between my ds and my gymmie. I think it has a lot to do with how close they are in age. (Same bday, just a year apart) When I forgot to order gymmie a team shirt for big bro's baseball team, you would have thought the sky fell! It warms my heart. Gymmie and big sis enjoy doing their nails, hair, & makeup together. Big sis and ds play video games together, which I don't particularly like, but I feel they need to have something to bond over so I allow it a bit!

 

[Mrs. Puma]

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My older Dd does ballet/dance and up until just a couple of years ago, my gymmie was the one who was constantly at her older sisters dance studio. ODD still dances, gymmie is in the gym, it works out fine because their schedules are similar enough. I just drive back and forth a lot, lol! For meet/competition season it gets a little trickier as they can have (and have had) competitions in completely different directions in the same weekend. All our meets/competitions are a minimum 2hr drive, most 3-4hrs and all dance competitions require a whole weekend stay in hotel. It worked out fairly well this season, only two major conflicts.
So in short, it was actually really nice to get YDD involved in something almost as time consuming as what ODD does.
The person getting the short end of the stick is really my husband, he very rarely sees us during the week and we don't have a single weekday that we can sit down and have dinner together. We try to make up for it during the weekends, but during season we are almost never home....

This sounds like my life! As sad as I am that ODD is more than likely done with dance at the end of this season, it will be MUCH easier. I don't mind putting the times/$/craziness of scheduling into things they LOVE, but if she's not into it, it's not worth it. She's starting middle school in the fall (AHHHHHHH!!!!) so not having dance will free her up to try a lot of new things. I suspect she'll be the kid who does a few things once a week rather than one thing 15 plus hours a week. We'll see!

 

[stillgotmyleotard]

It seems a lot of you have other children who are sporty in some way, I suppose that helps. @GYMOM it seems like your whole family is sporty, if you coach a team.

I sometimes feel like gym has an effect on the whole house. Often, when my daughter and I get in from gym, we haven't seen the others all day. Then when we do, we are tired and it's late. I try not to make it so it's about gymnastics at home and yet here I am, sat on chalkbucket, with youtube on a tab for the intervals.

 

[GYM0M]

@GYMOM it seems like your whole family is sporty, if you coach a team.

Bahaha! Not quite.....my tball team was more of a comedy performance as opposed to a sport team! I am far from athletic; sitting at a long red light in my standard car makes my wimpy legs shake!

 

[z2akids]

The first thing I do is not stay at the gym. That frees up 10+ hours a week. I drop DD and then run errands and spend time with the other kids. They rarely spend more than 30 minutes a month at the gym - a couple of times a month they are with me for pick up or drop off.

As for meets, they attend about 1/2 of them. When they attend, we only ask that they pay attention to their sister. Otherwise, they generally spend their time on video games (which is a huge incentive because otherwise they don't get 3+ straight hours playing video games). Plus, most of the meets they attend are out of town, so they get the whole hotel/pool time.

The boys have their own out of school activities and DD actually spends more time at their activities on a day to day basis than they attend at the gym. In addition, I work nights, so our schedule is crazy all the time.

We work hard for me and DH to get enough quality time with each child.

 

[Anna's_Mom]

I think I have it relatively easy since it is my younger child (girl) who is a gymnast and my older one is a boy. He had his own sport for a while (fencing), but now concentrates on singing and theater. So they both have different activities. Even when DD was much younger I never stayed for practice so DS got more attention then. And now, at 12 and 15, they don't have to go to performances/meets if they don't want to. We've decided that breakfast is our "family meal" since one or both of them will be gone for dinner often. At this point I think *I* am the one most often frustrated with DDs schedule. I miss family weekend camping trips, traveling to see my parents or other activities that are impossible with DDs schedule and the "do not miss practice ever" attitude of the gym. I would love for the schedule to change to more hours but fewer days so that we had more flexibility for weekends away, or even a Saturday as a family.

 

[stillgotmyleotard]

From what I know, I think gym all day Saturday must be a cast-in-stone rule.

 

[Dr Maleficent]

Not at our gym - weekends are strictly off limits unless there is a meet!

 

[stillgotmyleotard]

I always knew I loved France.

 

[wgymmom]

My YDD is so easygoing. She doesn't ask for much at all and handles the huge focus on gymnastics really well. I really couldn't ask for a better non-gymnastics kid.

 

[gymmomtotwo]

Well, I have two other kids in competitive swimming, and gotta be honest, that is way more time consuming and takes over your life more than gymnastics. My gymmie is the one who imo gets the short end of the stick. She only has about 7 meets from Sept to Dec, and that's it. And they are only one day out of the weekend. Swim meets last 2-3 days in the winter, and can last up to 4-5 days in the summer. And, if your kid if good enough for finals, then you are there all morning. Leave the meet to eat and rest for a little while, and then it is back to the pool around 5 for warmup for finals. This goes on for days in a row. I can't tell you how many meets the child has sat through. The swimming sibs are some of her best friends, so they have fun, but still can be pretty tedious. Meet season runs from Oct to March and April to early August. I am constantly thanking our lucky stars that there is usually a nice 4 hour practice on Saturday, and a nice gym mom that will take her home with them for a sleepover. I am adamant when a gym meet comes around that if they can, everyone must go and act happy about it. She's earned the right to have people cheer her on!

 

[Deleted member 18037]

From what I know, I think gym all day Saturday must be a cast-in-stone rule.

Not at our gym. Saturday is optional. Which was my motivation for changing. And we have strong teams.

 

[stillgotmyleotard]

It has been a struggle sometimes and I have felt guilty sometimes about what each child is missing out on. And that is with dd training gymnastics a maximum of 15 hours a week. However I really wonder how it affects those kids at elite level and the tops kids who train up to 30 hours a week. That must been an insane burden on the family to make sure siblings are nurtured and flourishing.

I wonder this too. I also wonder whether there is jealousy among siblings, beyond the usual surface-level rivalries. Not everyone enjoys reflected glory.

 

[OzZee]

All of my kids do various activities. Dont think we have any problems (lol you never know who is harbouring some resentment that will come out in years to come!).
I don't stay and watch practice. Everything so far is fairly close by. We don't have to travel for competitions. Occasionally one will come and support one of the others but usually just me. Think the only thing we all go to is dd1's dance concert. Maybe dd3's ballet show.
Guess those as they are evening performance and the others don't have to be elsewhere?

 

[Dr Maleficent]

My little dd is in rec gym and would completely love to be on team like her big brother, but it is not going to happen. But when she comes to meets she screams louder than anyone if he places - regarding his gym she is really a star. She does loads of other activities and has tons of interests, and I make sure she doesn't miss out on anything to go to ds's meets. It hasn't been easy for her but she is one tough little cookie and this experience will make her stronger. I'm sure she will go far in whatever she eventually ends up doing.

 

[Learning Parent GB]

My middle child is the gymnast. And although it is only 12 hours a week, that still is hard on her younger brother who has to be dragged along to practice most of the time. The 45 min drive means it is not worth driving home and we struggle to find other local things to do that do not cost money. So one night a week we stay at the gym and he does homework, but the other night is just boring for him and I get frustrated by the situation. The third night he has been going to grandparents but that now has to change. He has also had to change his swimming lessons to early Saturday morning to fit in around gym, so he loses his one lie in of the week too. I feel permanently guilty and now we can no longer stay at the gym to even do homework the challenge is on to find something to do with him that fits her hours - and that doesn't break the budget.

Oldest child just has to look after himself. He gets a bit annoyed about the amount of time he is on his own while we are away at the gym, but he supports her in what she does. He has his football and does well academically, but while you can tell people that DD placed at a gym meet, it just isn't socially acceptable here to tell people that you are proud of your child for doing well in an academic competition.

The only solution? Move closer to the gym so I can just drop her off and pop home. Competitions aren't a big problem - and are warmer to watch than football!

 

[Mrs. Puma]

My middle child is the gymnast. And although it is only 12 hours a week, that still is hard on her younger brother who has to be dragged along to practice most of the time. The 45 min drive means it is not worth driving home and we struggle to find other local things to do that do not cost money. So one night a week we stay at the gym and he does homework, but the other night is just boring for him and I get frustrated by the situation. The third night he has been going to grandparents but that now has to change. He has also had to change his swimming lessons to early Saturday morning to fit in around gym, so he loses his one lie in of the week too. I feel permanently guilty and now we can no longer stay at the gym to even do homework the challenge is on to find something to do with him that fits her hours - and that doesn't break the budget.

Oldest child just has to look after himself. He gets a bit annoyed about the amount of time he is on his own while we are away at the gym, but he supports her in what she does. He has his football and does well academically, but while you can tell people that DD placed at a gym meet, it just isn't socially acceptable here to tell people that you are proud of your child for doing well in an academic competition.

The only solution? Move closer to the gym so I can just drop her off and pop home. Competitions aren't a big problem - and are warmer to watch than football!

I HATE the cold...I am soooo lucky my kids do indoor sports!!!