Parents Viewing Priviledges

[Tambo]

I'm new to competitive gymnastics. My daughter 8 has been at a gym for 2 years now and has started down the competitive road and I was wondering what "best practices" are at other gyms? I've just been informed the parents of competitive children are no longer allowed to view their children training (despite the facility to house spectators and viewing windows) and was wondering if this is common practice at other gyms? Please feel free to comment

Thank You
Tambo

 

[Tambo]

Viewing Privileges

I am new to competitive gymnastics. My daughter has been at a gym for 2 years now and has just started the competitive stream. I have just been informed by the gym that competitive parents are no longer allowed to view their children in training (despite the capacity to house spectators and viewing windows). I was wondering if this is common practice in the competitive stream. All comments are appreciated.

Thank you

 

[kayjaybe]

Yep. At our gym you can no longer watch once the child reaches level 3. We start competing at level 5.

 

[Kiwi]

Whether it is 'best practice' is debateable and has been debated here a lot.

 

[Aussie_coach]

Most gyms do have this policy for their competitive gymnasts, the viewing windows are for the rec kids. And it is for your own health. Seriously once you child starts training 14 or so hours a week it is very unhealthy to sit there and watch all their training. I have seen parents do this, and just committing this much time to sitting there will change their attitudes, they start to spend far too much time focused on what these kids are and aren't doing, who is better than who, who is getting the most attention and so on.

Then when their child wants to stop its very hard on the parent because watching gymnastics has become their life.

 

[wallinbl]

At our gym, team parents are encouraged to drop off and pick up, but I think a lot of that is due to crowd control. I try to catch the last 20-30 minutes of one practice per week, because DD likes it when one of us watches.

 

[bogwoppit]

Merged threads to keep answers together. Duplicate posts are very confusing.

 

[sglemon]

It depends on the gym. Our gym still allows viewing, Some days it is a good thing, other days not. Most do not stay and watch, however. When my DD moved a level, I might stay for the whole practice once or twice in the beginning to see what they do, but that is it. Most drop off and may show up an hour early for pick up and watch.

 

[Quadqueen]

Lots of folks here say they are not allowed to view. Personally, I wouldn't like that policy, and DD's gym allows anyone to watch. Of course I don't sit and watch practice five days a week, but I do pick up a little early often to watch, and I like having that option.

 

[MaryA]

Ours doesn't allow team parents to watch. I have mixed feeling about it, but I think it does reduce crazy gym parent drama, which I'm sure is at least part of the reason. As Nicki said, this has been hotly debated on this site in the past. Try searching "parents watch practice" or something.

 

[SignHere]

Ours allows observation every 6 weeks or so. It's really a space issue because parents need to be in the gym to watch. It's also a safety issue bc gymmies will pay attention to parents instead of what they are doing and may get injured. Also. Watching your child for 12 to 15 hours a week isn't conducive to your mental health and def leads to CGMS !

 

[onebusymama]

Apparently none of the gyms around here allow viewing for team AND pre team. Which I'm not a big fan of when you're talking about 4 - 7 y.o. girls. But I definitely understand why for the team girls who practice all the time. I think Aussie coach explained that in another thread & I see why.

 

[Tambo]

Thank you all for your comments! I apologize for the double post. I'm new to forums as well! I will search the topic more! Thanks!

 

[Sparky]

I actually think it can cause MORE drama when parents have restricted viewing/no viewing. I find that if there are a group of us sitting upstairs watching it is often easier to get a clearer idea of what is going on (if there are any concerns) than if it is all done via word of mouth and telephone - he said, she said, that kind of thing.

Also, at least in Canada, many gyms are non profit organizations that rely on some pretty heavy parental involvement to organize and run various fund raising events, including an annual competition. I have always found it far easier to get people excited and committed about volunteering if I have an opportunity to chat with them in person (like while we are viewing practice) than a random, mass email going out to all.

I am personally VERY opposed to viewing restrictions, although our club's board (on which I sit) voted them in a few years back. It has not been very well received and remains a bone of contention with many to this day. Also, many simply ignore the restriction and we have found it is not that easy to enforce.

Seriously, if a family member is quietly watching (as most do) and being respectful, why is it an issue? Deal with the occassional CGM of CGD on a case by case basis. I find that I have put out many a fire by simply being there to explain something to a parent with a concern.

I guess it is pretty obvious which side of the fence I am on, lol!

 

[clark222]

Our gym allows and even encourages parents to stay if they want. I have read about this issue on here before and I understand some of the reasons for the rules. No matter. Frankly, I would not be OK with any children's activity that restricted parent viewing. I am not a helicopter parent and actually almost never stick around to watch. But if our gym had this rule, I would pull my kid immediately. Telling me I cannot observe my child at any time is a huge red flag. Most of the girls on my dd's team are far too young to advocate for themselves or be good judges of safe practices. That is the most basic job of a parent. I am surprised there is not more back-lash to these sorts of rules at other gyms.

 

[momof5]

My DD practices 20 plus hours a week and I try to watch an hour or two a week. I feel that by coming to the gym where she spends so much time shows her that I support her. I know of a gym in my area that had closed practices for a while and the things that were done behind closed doors were horrible. I would be very leery to allow my child no go to a gym that had a policy that won't allow parents to watch.

 

[GymBeeMom]

We are allowed to stay but almost nobody does past level 4 or 5. I think a lot of new team moms want to watch. I want to see her do what she does, but 4 hours a day on hard plastic chairs when I have other things that need tended to doesn't work so well for me. I love my daughter, I am proud of her, I will watch a practice here and there so she knows she is loved and supported.

I don't need to be there because I trust the coaches. I trust our coaches with her life and to travel with her for meets, so I think I am okay leaving her with them at the gym. It has helped her become a strong, independent child who wants me but doesn't need me there. She did her first solo travel with the coaches when she was 7. And has since done team travel twice and gone to TOPS testing and soon A camp without me. At 8 years old she is ready to take her lumps and successes and arguments with other teammates and getting yelled at by a coach and booboos from splitting the beam-without me. We can talk about it later but she can handle it in the moment, something she may not have learned to do if I were always there.

It was hard to let go at first, but I realized it was me, not her. Glad our gym lets parents watch who want to, but also glad that that most of us learn to let go. Sorry for rambling. Didn't mean to get so long winded, but this is an issue I actually feel somewhat strongly about. If you don't trust the coaches enough to leave, I don't think i would trust them to keep them safe during practice either. The girls must learn to trust the coaches and go to them when they have a problem, and when Mom is in the lobby, I think it interferes with that process.

 

[Quadqueen]

We are allowed to stay but almost nobody does past level 4 or 5. I think a lot of new team moms want to watch. I want to see her do what she does, but 4 hours a day on hard plastic chairs when I have other things that need tended to doesn't work so well for me. I love my daughter, I am proud of her, I will watch a practice here and there so she knows she is loved and supported.

I don't need to be there because I trust the coaches. I trust our coaches with her life and to travel with her for meets, so I think I am okay leaving her with them at the gym. It has helped her become a strong, independent child who wants me but doesn't need me there. She did her first solo travel with the coaches when she was 7. And has since done team travel twice and gone to TOPS testing and soon A camp without me. At 8 years old she is ready to take her lumps and successes and arguments with other teammates and getting yelled at by a coach and booboos from splitting the beam-without me. We can talk about it later but she can handle it in the moment, something she may not have learned to do if I were always there.

It was hard to let go at first, but I realized it was me, not her. Glad our gym lets parents watch who want to, but also glad that that most of us learn to let go. Sorry for rambling. Didn't mean to get so long winded, but this is an issue I actually feel somewhat strongly about. If you don't trust the coaches enough to leave, I don't think i would trust them to keep them safe during practice either. The girls must learn to trust the coaches and go to them when they have a problem, and when Mom is in the lobby, I think it interferes with that process.

I feel a little deja vu here, because I know this has been discussed at length. I agree that we ought to trust the coaches. However, I don't think if you want to watch your child on occasion, it's considered "not letting go." And, why do we need to "let go"? In what other sport are parents told they can't watch, ever, and parents are ok with that? It just seems odd.

Certainly, if my child always paid attention to me when I was there, or came to me when she got a minor boo-boo, I wouldn't watch. But I enjoy watching sometimes, and she WANTS me to see what she's working on.

 

[gymmomtotwo]

Parents are discouraged from watching all the time, but not forbidden. The gym would be too crowded if people stayed for the whole thing.Most people seem to like to catch the last 15-30 minutes. It's way to long to stay anyway, but DD was 4 when she started, and I would not have been happy with a no viewing policy. That tells me the gym has something to hide

 

[Deleted member D3987]

my experience speaking here. "that tells me the gym has something to hide" is simply not true. the fact is, almost every thing bad that you can think of that has or will happen will be in "full view" of the parents. this is a fact.