Parents Parents with unhealthy obsession with their gymnast

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I see this here, and I see it is real life: parents who are incapable of supporting the successes of others. It's a laser like focus on their own child. Everyone else is the competition. And yet these people expect praise and adoration of their child. They think that we should also think their child is the best, the most important, etc. Is this narcissism? Is it worse among gymnastics parents, or is this the sad state of affairs with youth athletics. I am just thinking of it today with all the anxiety around early recruiting. I wonder if these parents start thinking their child could get a better offer as soon as they verbal and hen see that a competitor has an offer at UCLA or Oklahoma. It must be a hard life to live.
 
Definitely not gymnastics specific. Didn't you watch Dance Moms? lol. It is rampant and not just in sports. Academic achievement, music or performing arts, pretty much any area a child can excel is a breeding ground for this behavior.
 
Definitely not gymnastics specific. Didn't you watch Dance Moms? lol. It is rampant and not just in sports. Academic achievement, music or performing arts, pretty much any area a child can excel is a breeding ground for this behavior.

Yep. There are some crazy parents in our school.
 
OMG yes! I do think there is often many nacissistic personality traits that I have seen in these types of parents.
 
I think it is real and happens in every sport. I see some parents that are so kind to kids in either lower levels ( not the same level as their kid in gymnastics ) or not direct competition.
 
It's not just gymnastics. My son is a junior golfer and it is rampant there as well, including the recruiting drama. Everything is scrutinized - tournament selection, scores, placement, equipment changes, etc. In fact, in some ways, it's worse because the parent is usually much more personally involved with their child's day-to-day involvement with the sport. Parents caddy during a tournament until they reach a certain age, are right there on the range or course for practices, choosing which tournaments to play in and equipment to buy, etc instead of just dropping the child off at practice/meets and letting the coaches decide most things. I have seen some truly disgusting behavior by parents in the junior golf world, from loudly berating their child to throwing clubs at their child. It's mind blowing.
 
Definitely see it in other sports as well, and as I've seen my kids grow older and age out of sports, look back on some of the behavior and realize, we all thought they'd play college baseball, football, etc., and very few do. Sometimes it's the kids' decision, injury, or not tall enough, too tall, etc. You just don't know. It seems more rampant with only child parents though, not enough perspective and they think they know everything. But I think gymnastics is a bit of a crazy sport, it's expensive, takes true talent and dedication and parents that are committed with their dollars and time. Sometimes, not a great combo of factors.
 
Definitely not just gymnastics.
 
My kids do summer league swim. It's a big thing here and it's basically a rec league that only lasts for 3 months. I see parents like that THERE, which really blows my mind.
 
I think it’s worse in individual sports or academics. Especially gymnastics because it is so much more subjective with judging...do you do a harder less clean routine or an easier routine with great form. From stories I’ve heard, the girls and parents are way worse than the boys. Our boys team are pretty good at supporting each other, and seem to genuinely like each other in that they play outside of gym. I have not heard anything from a parent but cheering for each kid.

That doesn’t mean there isn’t occasional sniping, or complaining. One year my son got a lower score doing giants on high bar than a kid who had no kip, the other boy said something along the lines of “I’m better than you”, to which my son said “you can’t even do a kip”. Then they left the meet, went home and played Fortnite together.
 
You put into words exactly what I was thinking after reading some crazy stuff on one of those FB pages dedicated to gymnast parents.
 
A lot of crazy parents in gymnastics, but it is not just gymnastics. In South Africa, rugby takes the cake. Grown-ups getting into fist fights next to the field at primary school matches :(
At our gym some of us joke about the Spur which is a local steakhouse franchise. A mom asked a very irate dad at a rugby match who was screaming at his kid (touch rugby for 6 year olds) whether the point wasn't just for the kids to have fun. The dad replied that if he wanted his kid to have fun, he would take him to the Spur. So if we see crazy gym parent behaviour we suggest that the parents should take their kids to the Spur ;)
 
Always been there in youth sports now made worse with social media insta stars ...and things like this 13 year old soccer player turned pro, 5 years till the kid can play ...... parents will now add Nike contracts to list.

 
It's everywhere. All kinds of parents are living through their kids in all kinds of ways. We recently had an AAU referee assaulted by an angry parent at an AAU basketball game in a semi-rural part of my state. I see parents sniping over academics at my school (stuff like "my kid's in the most advanced math class and your kid is not"). There's not a ton of it at my daughter's gym, or at least it's at a dull and containable roar. You get a few hurt feelings and some kids lashing out after a bad meet, but that's to be expected-- they are kids and learning how to deal with disappointment. We aren't the super-intense gym in our urban area, so that may have something to do with it. I tell my kid to let any sniping roll off her back, I better never catch her sniping at a teammate even if she's had a bad meet, and I try to keep as good a relationship with the other parents because I never know when my kid might need a ride to a meet. ;-)
 
Couldn’t add to above but was originally “committed” to college at age 11......
 

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