Anon Is this normal?

[Anonymous (0588)]

So I'm in a different online forum for gymnastics parents and a person posted that they needed to know "what was out there to pay for my child's gymnastics"? The OP seemed to indicate that they were pretty new to the sport. And folks were responding with bake sales, leo sales, on line fundraising (but didn't say Go Fund Me), booster club stuff ....and numerous people are thinking that this is going to cover all their expenses for a kid on a competitive team (tuition, coach fees , travel, meet fees etc). There were comments that pointed out : YMCA was a more economical option; fundraising was very unlikely to cover all their fees; maybe consider a different sport that costs less (a parent decision); start an Instagram page to pay the fees (!!)

The responses seemed insane to me .....saying that "no gym will kick them out for not paying" , insinuating it is rude to tell them to consider a more economical option ("that speaks to the privilege of the responder") and TWO people responded saying they were downsizing their homes to fund their kids sport because "we can't tell her she can't do it"....Is this what's going on in the gym world these days?

 

[JBS]

Is this what's going on in the gym world these days?

No... this is all of youth sports. Perspective though... not everyone is as crazy as the interweb makes them sound... especially if that was a Facebook group where the algorithms manipulate the flow.

 

[Anonymous (0588)]

No... this is all of youth sports. Perspective though... not everyone is as crazy as the interweb makes them sound... especially if that was a Facebook group where the algorithms manipulate the flow.

Do these algorithms steer mean and crazy people to respond? I was just flabbergasted reading it … especially the “the gym won’t kick you out if you don’t pay” … how to gyms sustain if “not paying “ is a thing?

 

[JBS]

Do these algorithms steer mean and crazy people to respond?

Absolutely do (watch this show)...

 

[Anonymous (c343)]

Yea i try to take everything I read online with a grain of salt and put it in perspective. So while yes this stuff is happening, it’s not the norm, it’s just a teeny tiny percentage. Same thing with stuff like alll these insta-gymnast influencer kids, it can feel like that’s the norm, when in reality there isn’t a single one at our gym, or even in our city. Again, a teeny tiny percentage of people at the extremes of all things. Social media is a lie.

 

[Anonymous (42f1)]

This was the culture at my daughter’s last gym. Parents would openly brag about how many months they hadn’t paid or what they got for free. I don’t know how the gym has stayed in business.

 

[JBS]

This was the culture at my daughter’s last gym. Parents would openly brag about how many months they hadn’t paid or what they got for free. I don’t know how the gym has stayed in business.

This is really strange... one of our team requirements is to have auto-pay on file.

 

[Anonymous (42f1)]

This is really strange... one of our team requirements is to have auto-pay on file.

I thought it was strange too and it became a negative issue in many ways.

 

[Anonymous (0588)]

This was the culture at my daughter’s last gym. Parents would openly brag about how many months they hadn’t paid or what they got for free. I don’t know how the gym has stayed in business.

At one of our gyms, if you were not current with your tuition and team fees, they would cancel them out of meets (no refund) because talking went nowhere.

 

[JBS]

I thought it was strange too and it became a negative issue in many ways.

I would think so... could cause a lot of issues with the coaches as well. Those missed tuitions could be used to give the coaching staff raises.

 

[Anonymous (6f52)]

So I'm in a different online forum for gymnastics parents and a person posted that they needed to know "what was out there to pay for my child's gymnastics"? The OP seemed to indicate that they were pretty new to the sport. And folks were responding with bake sales, leo sales, on line fundraising (but didn't say Go Fund Me), booster club stuff ....and numerous people are thinking that this is going to cover all their expenses for a kid on a competitive team (tuition, coach fees , travel, meet fees etc). There were comments that pointed out : YMCA was a more economical option; fundraising was very unlikely to cover all their fees; maybe consider a different sport that costs less (a parent decision); start an Instagram page to pay the fees (!!)

The responses seemed insane to me .....saying that "no gym will kick them out for not paying" , insinuating it is rude to tell them to consider a more economical option ("that speaks to the privilege of the responder") and TWO people responded saying they were downsizing their homes to fund their kids sport because "we can't tell her she can't do it"....Is this what's going on in the gym world these days?

Wow, this is very interesting, especially the part about kids not getting kicked out for not paying their bills. That is erroneous. I personally know of gymnasts who were no longer allowed to practice until their bills were paid, often ending with the family leaving the gym in a huff, cussing out the owners, storming off to a rival gym, and also making arrangements to get their bills caught up. But they do get kicked out for not paying when they've been given chances to work things out.

I also did many odd jobs and tons of fundraising to pay my daughters' gymnastics tuition and fees. it was exhausting, but we made it through.