Anon Tell me your crazy gym parent behaviors

[Anonymous (4266)]

Many years ago when our daughters were around 8 years old, one of the mothers was calculating what year olympics her daughter could aim for. This level of delusion was so shocking I was quite literally speechless. I just sat there with a 'deer in the headlights' expression. She never brought it up again.

We’ve heard that math in our gym for 8 year olds. And there is one 8 year old for whom everyone has probably secretly done that math (including me!). She’s truly brilliant to watch. And I say this coming from a gym with plenty of junior and senior elites and current national team members.

Mom told daughter who is a senior to delay graduation a year so that she can go to level 10 and be recruited by a D1 school. Daughter does not have the mobility score for level 9.

Someone at our gym is doing that, but as a junior. Or maybe it’s the same gym and I misunderstood- hopefully there’s only one family in the world who thinks this makes sense.

 

[Anonymous (3d9d)]

Ngl, some of the craziest stuff I've seen is in the comments right here on this site. All of it steming from that most natual of parental instincts, the idea that your child is uniquely special and gifted and destined for great things if only the world (and her rec class coaches) would notice.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Ngl, some of the craziest stuff I've seen is in the comments right here on this site. All of it steming from that most natual of parental instincts, the idea that your child is uniquely special and gifted and destined for great things if only the world (and her rec class coaches) would notice.

Every parent thinks their kid is one in a million.

Or, to take the same math and phrase it differently: 99.9999% of parents overestimate how great their kid is.

 

[Anonymous (4266)]

Ngl, some of the craziest stuff I've seen is in the comments right here on this site. All of it steming from that most natual of parental instincts, the idea that your child is uniquely special and gifted and destined for great things if only the world (and her rec class coaches) would notice.

Parent perspective and taking this to a serious place: I have a very average gymnast, and understand where this mentality comes from. There isn’t enough gymnastics to go around.

Gymnastics is so hard to access and if your child falls in love with it, you’ll walk through fire to give them a chance to do it before the clock runs out on them. It’s heartbreaking to find a gym, finally get off a waitlist, get shuffled from class to class when there aren’t enough instructors, scramble to another gym that has a team program, watch your kid work their way through their rec classes and hope they get noticed for pre-team, and then have to watch your kid fight every year for their spot as kids a level below threaten to bump them or new kids join the gym with more talent.

The gap between rec and team at most gyms is vast and parents are very aware of how fragile the competitive careers of average kids can be, so it’s no wonder some of us go crazy trying to find or cling to opportunities for our kids. I don’t know another sport that is so up or out from such a young age, at least in the U.S.. The idea that there are tons of great rec-op or xcel programs or Hs programs out there just waiting to give gymnasts the right opportunity for their abilities is folly.