Parents Not excited, but not sad

[Deleted member 18037]

we are sort of going through this with a 10yo/lvl 7. it's a lot. it's basically a part time job, on top of school. and it will get harder as they get older.

i also asked if mine wanted to move to xcel or stay in lvl 6 another year and the answer is no to either one. but we are not going to miss things for gymnastics anymore. ie - in 5th grade they do a "circus". she will miss a night of practice. my parents are coming and she will miss a saturday so we can all go apple picking (you have to go early or it's too crazy otherwise). she's been invited to a party, she will miss a night of practice for it (hoping this isn't also the same night as circus!). actually, she does better if given a breather. we opted to not go to a weekend of clinics at another gym. so she will just do a regular practice on saturday. vs. all wkend long. last year she missed an impromptu sleepover with a bunch of her school friends. she would have missed fri/sat practice. she regretted it.

my advice, it's ok to miss practice. don't let her miss out on life.

Every kid is different. This is my kid. She makes her concerts, she plays in the orchestra. We do family things, take our occasional 3 day weekend.

We prioritize and we are very lucky that her she has friends who will actually ask as us the best days for my girl to do birthday parties.

But yes we miss practice from time to time. We may have to opt out of a meet occasionally for something else. Its rare, but it happens.

If she couldn't "miss" occasionally, she would of been done at level 4, instead of getting ready for her L7 season.

 

[Mamabear123]

Since I posted this back in July, I took everyone's advice and popped a few chill pills. Since then, DD still has the same meh attitude, but I feel a lot better about it. When it's time to go to practice, she goes, works hard and has fun. When she's not at practice, she plays with her friends and often makes up her own "floor routines". She loves gymnastics and is naturally good at it, but on that same token I know it's also a lot of work. I'm now just following her lead and letting her have fun.
Also, she absolutely will miss practice for another event; she's7. But she doesn't miss meets because the price of the meets is rolled into our monthly tuition. Lol