Parents Other Activities?

[lhmom]

My DD would love to go to a sports school!

 

[SignHere]

I had this dilemma when older DD was 8 and starting team gymnastics. I was worried she would lose out on opportunities later if she didn't try other sports.

Fast forward 5 years , she has been reasonably successful in gymnastics, but has no aspirations for gymnastics other than to do it for as long as she can and for as long as she is still enjoying it. However, she has expressed an interest in lacrosse, volleyball, and field hockey. She has tried out all 3 , in school gym or in camps , and because of her gymnastics training, has been extremely successful at all 3! In fact, we have had competitive team coaches get very excited to hear that she is a competitive optional level gymnast and is trying out their sport! (The volleyball coach didn't even want her to try out ...)

So - I've stopped worrying about fitting in other sports with a busy gymnastics schedule. The training and disciple your child will learn is giving her (or him) the foundation for virtually every sport. She (or he) will have no trouble switching to another one when their gymnastics career is over .

I like the advice to encourage a musical instrument, art, or church activity.

 

[Gymmonkeymomma]

My DD is now 13, trains 22-24 hours. Since she was 4, it's been gymnastics, CCD/church activities and school. She did Girl Scouts for 4 years, but we were only able to make it fit because I was one of the leaders. She tried cheer in 3rd grade-hated it! For the past 3 summers, she's had day practice which allows her to play street hockey at night. That's the only other activity that she's really enjoyed besides gym.

When she has to choose, she always chooses gym! I don't feel like she's missing out on anything.

 

[my4buffaloes]

A few things to consider - how many hours in the gym and how many hours outside of school for the other activities? Dance classes around here are only 45 minutes to 1 hour - not a huge commitment. Also, scouts is typically not every week. Another thing to think about is how many days after school would she have a commitment? For instance my dd had gym 2 days after school, drumming 1 day after and wanted to do a running club 2 days after. My dh and I knew that for her to have something every single day after school would be way too much for her so we said no to the running club.

Just a few things to think about. I like them to try other things when it works with the gym schedule and many times when they mention wanting to do something else we talk about how it would work out with the gym schedule and it comes down to them picking a sport or activity - they have so far always picked gymnastics. Dd even recently had said she was going to join the 4th grade choir. Usually the music programs meet during lunch recess so I said sure. A couple of days later she came home and said she was going to play violin instead. I asked her what happened to choir and she said "oh they are going to meet after school on Fridays and I can't do that because of gymnastics so I will play the violin instead." They know they have to pick so it has always worked out that they aren't too disappointed to not be able to do something.

 

[vagymmomma]

My DD does just gymnastics at this point. Other than dance classes (recommended by her coaches), her other extracurricular activities over the years have come from school (e.g. band). The only thing I wanted to add to the discussion was to remember that the other activities do not have to come from outside your home. My DD and I do all types of craft projects together. Sewing, soap making, cooking, baking and jewelmaking are all things we've done. Plus you can never do too much reading . Balance can come in many forms.

 

[htimcj]

DD currently does 16 hours of gym and 30 min of violin. She also does some long distance running (5k and 10k) but she doesn't really practice for those. Just runs with gym and DH. I tried to get her interested in other activities but she was never interested. It always gym. When she hits L8 violin might be a bit harder to get in but I said we would work it out. It might mean going to gym 20 min late once a week.

 

[Kiwi]

DD does gymnastics 4 days a week (about 11 hours), ballet twice a week and piano lessons once a week. She does practice the piano but not for long amounts of time. It can be hard to keep them all going because schedules can get changed and end up clashing

 

[claudidoll]

Right now DD does 5 hours a week of gym so she has time for
Ballet
Swimming
Karate
And Yoga

We will re-evaluate if/when she has more hours

 

[Ex member]

My youngest dd who does 2 rec classes a week does dance as well : -
Tap
Modern
Musical Theatre
Street Dance

The dance classes are on a Saturday and she doesn't have gym then.

My oldest dd who does development disability gymnastics twice a week has just started dance classes where her sister goes : -
Tap
Modern
Ballet
Musical Theatre

The dances classes are on a Saturday (except Ballet) at the same time as her sister's and she goes to Gymnastics straight after (2 streets away). Her Ballet class is on a Thursday with Gymnastics 1 1/2 hours after. It makes it easier to have Gym and Dance on the same day as it leaves most of the week free.

 

[Jenny]

Over the years I tried to encourage my dd to try other things. She had a go at disco dancing, ballet dancing, piano, multi skills club, netball, Tap, and swimming. She stuck about a year at each one. Gym was always her first love.

 

[Iwannabemargo]

Over the years I tried to encourage my dd to try other things. She had a go at disco dancing, ballet dancing, piano, multi skills club, netball, Tap, and swimming. She stuck about a year at each one. Gym was always her first love.

Sounds like mine - when we stopped gym we tried Dance ( not hardcore enough) Cricket (boring) and hockey (no fun), so back to gym it was

 

[vbbf]

My dd does 14 hours of gym a wk, 1 ballet class and 1 swimming class. She would have to give up the ballet class in the future because it will clash with her gym class. She loves gym and would always choose gym over any other activity

 

[Flossyduck]

dd and ds are lucky to go to a school where all the children swim free of charge. So that happens during school time. They also get football coaching from a premier club volunteer during school pe time, which I think is fantastic. They do a lot of musical stuff - choir at lunch time and so on.

Outside of school we are so very limited around gym hours. dd does brownies. She would like to learn an instrument, but she doesn't have time to practice and she knows it. I have enough trouble trying to make sure she has some time to chill and stay in her pj's and have friends round to do girl stuff!

As ds gets older and wants to try things it's going to be hard not making him feel restricted by her gym. I'm dreading the time he really wants to do something and I know I'll be taking her to gym

 

[Flossyduck]

Also they change the training hours a couple of times a year so it's hard to keep things going. The day off has changed already this year and we heard last week that they are rearranging things again. dd's reaction "oh, oh, I guess that's Brownies on the line".

 

[Faith]

Now, at her 20 hour schedule, there isn't any time and I question if she has found the right sport. She is a natural athlete, but a slightly above average gymnast. It's possible she could be dominating another sport, and loving it. I will always wonder if we missed the mark with gymnastics because I never really had her try other sports.

This was us, except I think (hope) dd has found her sport.

As a slightly opposing voice, in some ways I do wonder if it was wise allowing dd to try a few sports. Everything was fine when gym was once a week, but then the commitment increased, and the dance lesson went, then the swim lesson. She kept up gym and her other sport as long as she could, until the other sport had a frank discussion with us about her future, and gymnastics couldn't or wouldn't support her.

It was an emotional and very hard decision for an 8 year old, and I do think that likely she would have been successful in her other sport with another couple of years in gym, then transitioning.

 

[gymmiemom]

I have asked DD several times if there is anything else she would like to do. But the answer is always no. She did do girl scouts one year, but hated it lol. She goes to gym 12 hours a week, so that doesn't leave a lot of time anyways. She does have exposure to other things through her siblings. Brother plays football and basketball, older sister plays volleyball, soccer and is in choir, and younger sister dances and plays soccer. But so far for DD she has no desire to do anything but gymnastics.