WAG Important tweet!

[Faith]

It's not just the safety of gymnastics though.

I am on a completely different continent to you, but in a 0.01 second google search I know your full name, your wifes, how old you both are, when you got married, how old you were when your first was born, where your wife went to school, what she studied, not to mention the names and ages of your children, and where you live. I know what your children look like, what sports they do. I even know your sister in law's name and that of one of her children. I am sure with bit more time I can find even more should I want to.

Whether you are in CGD territory or not, how safe is it to have that much information on a 5 year old girl out there?

 

[bookworm]

It's not just the safety of gymnastics though.

I am on a completely different continent to you, but in a 0.01 second google search I know your full name, your wifes, how old you both are, when you got married, how old you were when your first was born, where your wife went to school, what she studied, not to mention the names and ages of your children, and where you live. I know what your children look like, what sports they do. I even know your sister in law's name and that of one of her children. I am sure with bit more time I can find even more should I want to.

Whether you are in CGD territory or not, how safe is it to have that much information on a 5 year old girl out there?

Well that's just scary...and if I may ask, did you get all that info because he gave out his or his DD's name or just from his Chalk Bucket signature?

 

[Faith]

Well that's just scary...and if I may ask, did you get all that info because he gave out his or his DD's name or just from his Chalk Bucket signature?

I probably could have done it starting with a search on his daughter's first name and "gymnastics". That brings up the youtube links, and the ones to the threads here. There is an awful lot of open information out there accessible to everyone. The fact that he uses his real name as his user name just made it easier.

 

[bookworm]

oh ok, so I'm pretty safe with Bookworm

 

[Iwannabemargo]

You have to remember that Faith and I come from a country with more video surveilance camereas per capita than anywhere else in the world ! Privacy can be hard to keep at the best of times without throwing it away ! (( shrugs off closet leftie mantle and sneaks back in the cupboard))

 

[bogwoppit]

Well that's just scary...and if I may ask, did you get all that info because he gave out his or his DD's name or just from his Chalk Bucket signature?

You'd be horrified how quickly I can work out who people are! Seriously.

 

[NGL780309]

I'm kind of confused by this whole thread but my daughter did a kip at 5 years old (she's now 17)...

I was going to stay out of this one, but couldn't help but adding that my DD did her first Kip at age 5 too. There are several kids I know that did too and I don't know that many people. So I don't think it's that unusual that a coach has never seen it. Maybe that coach hasn't been around very long. And my kid ain't no child prodigy. I'm not usually one to be annoyed by overzealous crazy gym parents, but even I find you over the top.

 

[lhmom]

My one question to the OP would be this: you say that you're just a proud parent and you're not pushing her at all. What will you say if she comes to you one day after competing for several years and says, "I don't want to do gymnastics anymore. I want to do something else". Will you honestly be able to say "ok" and move on? I hope that you can keep that in mind because what she loves at 5 may not be what she loves at 15. My daughter enjoys it now and has done pretty well, but honestly I realize that can change next year or the year after. I think what I read from everyone else is you should be proud of her, but it's also a good idea to keep it all in perspective. Good luck to her in the future! I hope that the passion she has for it now endures.

 

[bogwoppit]

I was going to stay out of this one, but couldn't help but adding that my DD did her first Kip at age 5 too. There are several kids I know that did too and I don't know that many people. So I don't think it's that unusual that a coach has never seen it. Maybe that coach hasn't been around very long. And my kid ain't no child prodigy. I'm not usually one to be annoyed by overzealous crazy gym parents, but even I find you over the top.

I agree NGL, I was surprised that Rick posted it on his site. I haven't been around any Elite level gyms and I have known a few 5 year old that kipped in regular small town gyms. Not lots for sure, but more than one or two. Though five year old kippers are awfully cute, as is Joscelyne.

 

[NGL780309]

I agree NGL, I was surprised that Rick posted it on his site. I haven't been around any Elite level gyms and I have known a few 5 year old that kipped in regular small town gyms. Not lots for sure, but more than one or two. Though five year old kippers are awfully cute, as is Joscelyne.

I'm not at an elite level gym either and I can count my kid plus 2 others who are the owner and head coaches daughters. Then at another non elite gym I knew 2 other little ones. Add in a mom I met here on CB and that's a lot of child prodigies!

There is being proud of your kid, which every parent is, and there is plastering her all over the Internet, twitter and message boards acting like she's the only kid on earth who has ever done something.

 

[Shewhodrives]

I have always said "as long as it's my daughter dragging me out the door and not me pushing her, we will continue."

I love this! Great words to live by with gymnastics! Can I use it?

 

[kiwiflyer]

okay Bookworm...since we're braggin...i did back flips on a trampoline in 1959...guess how old i was...(depressing really).

Dunno: Can you still do backflips? I think that would be more impressive

 

[kiwiflyer]

Aside from the safety issues, burnout issues etc, I thought I might add an alternative point of view. This isn't my own point of view and I'm not big on attention, but it is something I've remembered for a few years.. It actually came from a lecturer of mine who came from a well-respected professional family. He said: `I'm going to blow my own trumpet, because no one else is going to do it for me'. It also went with the explanation that he believed there was nothing wrong with telling people how wonderful he (or his kids) were. Like I said not something i subscribe to, but I think an alternative point of view.

 

[bookworm]

I'm not at an elite level gym either and I can count my kid plus 2 others who are the owner and head coaches daughters. Then at another non elite gym I knew 2 other little ones. Add in a mom I met here on CB and that's a lot of child prodigies!

There is being proud of your kid, which every parent is, and there is plastering her all over the Internet, twitter and message boards acting like she's the only kid on earth who has ever done something.

I was going to stay out of this one, but couldn't help but adding that my DD did her first Kip at age 5 too. There are several kids I know that did too and I don't know that many people. So I don't think it's that unusual that a coach has never seen it. Maybe that coach hasn't been around very long. And my kid ain't no child prodigy. I'm not usually one to be annoyed by overzealous crazy gym parents, but even I find you over the top.

I'm kind of confused by this whole thread but my daughter did a kip at 5 years old (she's now 17)...

Thank you NGL and others because what you say about your daughters doing kips young was exactly my point in my post (in bold) ...that I've seen many a young one do a kip and i was more surprised that the coach had never seen it and that it was posted as such by OP. It seemed fairly common so I didn't understand the fuss...so Dunno that was where I was going with my post (kind of like you doing the backflips...lots of kids do them so why wouldn't a coach have ever seen one?)...

 

[bookworm]

I have always said "as long as it's my daughter dragging me out the door and not me pushing her, we will continue."

I love this! Great words to live by with gymnastics! Can I use it?

You certainly may

 

[JessLW]

Wow! The night shifter gets a couple daylight hours of shuteye and the thread explodes!!!

OP, this is my last post on this thread. By you asking her to perform in videos is pressure. Yes it really is. My DD is working to overcome a mental block on balance beam. If I ask her how practice was, it is a question. If I ask her how her BWO on beam was, that is pressure!!!! A simple question, but that question says, "I really want you to get your BWO on the high beam so we can move on. So with gymnasts even a simple question is pressure. Asking your child to perform like a trained monkey is pressure.

I wanted to comment on this in particular because it is very true.

I worked (until yesterday, I'm going back to teaching high school!) at a Montessori school for kids ages 1.5-6 and our principal, a very wise Italian woman, often tells the parents at our school that when you pick the kids up from school not to bombard them with questions about what happened at school today because that places pressure on the kids. She says let the conversations take place naturally and the kids will open up to you so much more than if you're "interrogating them." The unspoken message is that if mom cares so much about what I did at school today, she'll be disappointed if I did the wrong thing, and so the child shuts down. The parents at my school place a lot of pressure on their kids about learning English in particular (remember, I'm in China) with the questions like "tell me what words you learned today?" or "can you sing a song for me in English?" It is all fairly innocent, the parents are not trying to pressure their kids, but the message the kids get is that "I better learn English to make mom happy" NOT "I should learn English because it is fun and I like it."

These are little kids (as is the OP's DD) and pleasing mom and dad is extremely important. OP, don't be so sure that part of your DD's love for gymnastics comes in part from the fact that she knows what she does in the gym makes you proud of her. But what happens when she encounters a rough skill that's taking a long time for her to master? Or she can't move up a level as quickly everyone was expecting? These things happen and of course you'll love her just the same and you'll be just as proud of her as always, but kids are not like adults and they don't always draw rational and reasonable conclusions. 5 years old is quite young and the association she is building between gymnastics and pleasing dad might be pretty strong.

That's not to say you shouldn't praise your daughter or be proud of her, but just be careful about what message you might be sending to her without realizing it.