if my intent was to paint you all as crazy gym parents i would have said so. this is not the case. go back and read what i said a 2nd time.
i have raised 3 children to adulthood. not once did i ever ask to sit in on one of my child's classroom. what would be the point? if there was ever an issue, those issues would be brought to light by either my child or teacher or principal. and those issues would be mitigated and remedied thru them with my involvement.
case in point as an example: 1 of our sons was in the 6th grade. this example had to do with religious education. the teacher for religious ed was an FBI agent. we gave permission for our son to go on a "field trip" to a food kitchen in the city. we were slightly nervous due to the neighborhood but entrusted our son to the FBI agent.
at 11:00 p.m. we get a call from our son. he was informing us that there was a change in plans. they were leaving the soup kitchen and going on another "field trip" to the FBI office in that city.
now, i'm just like the rest of you i'm sure. i don't like a change in predetermined plans when it involves my kids. nonetheless, we told our son that we weren't exactly happy about this change, and that he would still be going to school the next morning. when we hung up, my wife and i decided that we would say something to the Rabbi that week. that we didn't like the fact that predetermined plans had been changed at 11:00 p.m. on a school night. and what recourse did we have when we were 40 miles away? i suppose i could have called a cab. but i wasn't comfortable about that. my wife even less.
our son returned home at 1:00 a.m. and something was clearly the matter. we asked. he told us that himself and a couple of other students held a gun and pulled the trigger of an unloaded weapon. this was not part of the plan of giving service to the food kitchen AND WE DID NOT GIVE PERMISSION FOR OUR SON TO HOLD AND FIRE AN UNLOADED HANDGUN FOR ANY REASON! need i say more?
in the vein that &%@t happens, it did in an extraordinary way. my point in this is that dumbfounding things happen in the raising of our children. and most of the time bad things don't happen. and no matter how efficient and thorough you might think you are as a parent, things of this nature come along and you realize that most people will not think the way you do.
as it relates to the topic, our gym does not have 'open' observation. never has. but if a parent or visiting relatives want to stop in and observe from time to time they are welcome. observation daily and hourly and by the same parent is not welcome. we have our reasons that are experience based over several years. this is why gyms have certain policies about observation, and none that everyone would agree about all of the time.
i'll leave you with this. a few years ago a mom and dad bring their daughter in for a try out to a gym. it was rather busy that day in this gym. they had another daughter not trying out and they had another child who was 4. this gym had recently emptied one of their pits because it had taken on water and had to be dried out. the pit had caution tape and mats around it to demarcate the area.
the gym was very busy that day. there were many people in the observation area. these new parents were busy watching their daughter try out and all the other things taking place in the gym. the 4 year old migrates away from the parents, as 4 year olds do sometimes, and without any of the other parents in the observation area noticing. there were pre-school classes going on at the same time. the 4 year old migrates to the pre-school class. 2 instructors can't identify who this child is. they call for the gym manager out loud. as the 2 instructors prepare to sit their groups down together so that the other can tend to the 4 year old...and while this is taking place, the 4 year old migrates again and away to the closed off pit and falls in. he died instantly.
at a competition a couple of years ago. a gymnast falls and straddles the beam and takes a pretty hard fall to the mat. she cracked her toenail open in the process and there was visible blood that could be seen from the spectator area. the mother sees the blood. out of her mind, she runs downs the bleachers and out on to the floor. she never looked left or to the right where there was a gymnast vaulting and running right at her. the gymnast hits her at full speed and literally lifts this mom off the ground where she falls and hits her head on the cement floor adjacent to the vault runway. the mom suffered a fractured skull and concussion. was in the hospital for 3 days. her daughter went home that night with a cracked nail and pretty sore inner thighs. but good came out of it...the mom found out she was pregnant while in the hospital.
the point? parents that have not been in the sport longer than a couple of years don't know about all the things that can happen. some that are foreseeable and some not. some that are predictable and some not. club owners and coaches do have knowledge, foreseeability and such. at least the good ones do. it's stories like these that contribute to the safety awareness that coaches and club owners have. we trust what takes place in the gym instructing your children because it is controlled and predictable and with the utmost of safety in mind. it's the stories that i have told you that put club owners and coaches on alert, when we should be focusing 100% of our attention on your children. this is paramount to the safety of all the children involved in our sport.
and respectfully speaking KateR, i am not off the mark. i am on the mark completely and explaining to you why coaches and club owners are the way that they are. and YOU may not be "coaching from the sidelines, yelling, etc;" but you have NO idea how often all of that behavior takes place every day at some gym somewhere in the USA. and the things that come up at competitions that most of you are not aware of at the moment but hear about later from, and usually, your own kids.
