Parents What type of gym parent are you?

[raenndrops]

I'm a "I wanna be there even if the girls don't go" ... lol.
I stay, But we are only there 2 hours at a time, I don't drive, and we live about a half hour away.

 

[tooootsie]

Drop and go.. sometimes I'll hang around for 20 mins of Saturday morning practice... weekdays I might catch the last 15 mins. I can't watch 12 hours a week of practice, that's my time to get housework, etc done

 

[Scotsgirl]

My husband drops dd then leaves no parents allowed , the odd time I go but as I say you do not get to enter the gym, dd tells us what she wants then the important info comes via emails , I have the usual chitchat with the mums at comps they seem nice enough , I take nothing to do with the cgm that compare kids and I will often be seen staring straight ahead with no eye.contact ,

 

[JMACAZ]

I am a reformed CGM. Drop and go but come back if they ask. Check in with Coach occasionally. Yell at meets cause they ask me too.

 

[MILgymFAM]

I'm pretty sure by the standards here, I am a CGM. I am involved in my kids and their 'things', to the point that I do watch professional gymnastics with them, learn the skills and requirements so I can speak intelligently about them, and talk about all their practices with them. I also do things like that for dance..Greek mythology..languages. I go all in with them on more than just gym, but that's there too. I do not watch much practice however, I was there (outside my own control) for every minute of the first year and a half and I'm glad to not be tethered anymore. Occasionally I will see some of DD2s open gyms because I still have to sit through those, but I have taken to walks, coffee, reading in the car...watching them practice regularly is the only thing that makes me a crazy mom (in my own opinion) so I chose not to. It just becomes way to easy to nitpick when I am there too much. Not their abilities, but their general behavior and attitudes. I take a billion pics at meets and buy them souvenirs and generally watch between my fingers- and then I cheer for everyone at awards. That's all I got.

 

[AgingHippie]

I drop off in the parking lot at the beginning and usually come back for the last 1/2 hour of a 4 1/2 hour practice. While I am there I will chat with parents but also watch and it is usually Vault which I hate. I do get a bit stressed out when my daughter is struggling with something but I am so scared of her knowing that I think sometimes she feels like I am blowing her off when I just reply "don't worry you will get it".

I do try to check in with the coaches every once in a while but it is pretty unlikely they will respond. I am fine with this I just want them to know I am open to getting her in there if she needs a private or something. This stems form our past experience.

DD's gym requires a 36 to move up and last year she would consistently gets 9's on 3 events and then get no more than 8.10 on vault. It caused her to miss the 36 by .05 or .10 at several meets. Finally two weeks before States the coach told her she needed a few privates to get it worked out and we ended up having to leave school early to get that done. The coach later told me they are not really allowed to tell kids they need privates but she knew DD should not repeat 4 so she made an exception. I want to make sure that doesn't happen again and if the need to fix something is there we can work with a schedule that doesn't make us miss school.

I love going to meets and watching all the girls and I tend to sit with other parents and have a good time without much stress at that point.

 

[AgingHippie]

I drop off in the parking lot at the beginning and usually come back for the last 1/2 hour of a 4 1/2 hour practice. While I am there I will chat with parents but also watch and it is usually Vault which I hate. I do get a bit stressed out when my daughter is struggling with something but I am so scared of her knowing that I think sometimes she feels like I am blowing her off when I just reply "don't worry you will get it".

I do try to check in with the coaches every once in a while but it is pretty unlikely they will respond. I am fine with this I just want them to know I am open to getting her in there if she needs a private or something. This stems form our past experience.

DD's gym requires a 36 to move up and last year she would consistently gets 9's on 3 events and then get no more than 8.10 on vault. It caused her to miss the 36 by .05 or .10 at several meets. Finally two weeks before States the coach told her she needed a few privates to get it worked out and we ended up having to leave school early to get that done. The coach later told me they are not really allowed to tell kids they need privates but she knew DD should not repeat 4 so she made an exception. I want to make sure that doesn't happen again and if the need to fix something is there we can work with a schedule that doesn't make us miss school.

I love going to meets and watching all the girls and I tend to sit with other parents and have a good time without much stress at that point.

 

[mom2newgymnast]

I think I am probably in the middle between CGM and relaxed gym mom. I don't stay and watch the whole 4 hour practice, but I do usually stay for the first 20-30 minutes and then watch the last 30 minutes or so. I like to see her practice and she still loves when I am there. I am a researcher type so I am aware of what she is working on, what is coming in the next level, how she is doing with skills, etc. I also do look at meet scores from previous years, gymnasts she will be competing with, etc. I am a numbers person and find that information interesting. However, I pretty much never talk to her coaches. I never ask the coaches how she is doing or if she needs to work on anything. She doesn't do privates. We don't own equipment at home. And I never criticize or suggest improvements to her gymnastics.

 

[vbdb]

We can't watch at our gym so I drop off and go as a result. I would like to be able to poke my head in once in a while to see what my DDs are up to but I know why the policy is in place, and it's because some parents can't handle watching. They take it out on their kids, the coaches and other parents in the group.
Once the girls had a group choreo lesson for level 4 floor last year that was just an hour so we went upstairs to watch. One of our moms was freaking out while we were there, gesturing to her daughter, carrying on about pointed toes. I turned to her and said "You're the reason we're not allowed up here normally". I know her pretty well and I was kind of joking but she was exactly the reason why they don't like us watching the kids.

 

[Faolmor]

DD is 6 and still wants me to watch. I live an hour away from the gym, and there is nowhere else for me to go, so I stay. I spend most of the time on my phone on Facebook LOL. I also plan to get myself a laptop so, in future, I can just plug in and get some work done. There is an area set up specifically for this.

It's all still new steps on the gym journey for us, though, so I love that I have been able to see a few of her "firsts" I might otherwise have missed, if I wasn't there. I think most of the other mums of the girls in her group stay too. There is a huge viewing area at DD's gym, and parents are encouraged to stay and watch.

I'm an all-in kind of mum, too. We home-school, so we are used to hanging out together.

 

[gymbeam]

im crazy as hell but rrrreal good at hiding it.

 

[Muddlethru]

Drop and go. I've watched practice once for 15 minutes in the last two years. But if my daughter comes home with a legitimate concern, complaint or an injury due to our inexperience beam coach, I am in the gym with unbridled craziness.

 

[SurpriseGymMom]

The kind that knows enough to be dangerous, but at the same time (honestly!!) have nothing but respect for her DDs coaches and tries to be really good about letting THEM coach her. I'm pretty hard on her (NOT to her!!!) and being in the gym a lot I see a LOT of bad turns and inside it drives me nuts (her coaches know, lol!). I think it would be easier to NOT watch at all at this point (L7). But, on the other hand, I really do love watching her do her thing (whether it's a good practice or not so good!). I just love being able to be a part of what she is passionate about and get to see it, good and bad. It's awesome to be there for those high moments when she gets a new skill etc, and sometimes helpful to have been there for the lows like nasty falls etc. I stay completely out of it on the floor though, when she is on the floor she is not mine unless her coach specifically calls me over..!

 

[SHELOVESGYM]

I honestly would love to watch but I work during practices almost all of the time. Our sitter drives DD to the gym and my MIL picks her up most evenings. Otherwise I would probably watch quite a bit.

 

[duyetanh]

But in a sign I really am going crazy, I've decided not to invite the grandparents to the big gym comps next year. I find the whole experience very stressful - chew every fingernail off and do serious damage to my heart. Having them talk to me throughout the process doesn't help, so I'm going to invite them to the competitions that don't matter and then just send updates for the ones that do.

Ok. Like times infinity.
Because they don't get it, the get on my nerves more than I ever thought possible!!

 

[Mom2Chickadee]

I'm a drop and go parent, but come back for the last 30 minutes b/c DD likes it when I'm there...even if I'm just seeing ropes and splits. This sport is pretty foreign to us so I'm trying to be an educated parent, thank you Chalk Bucket and DH just agrees with what I say, lol. My real struggle right now is trying to be a patient gym parent. DD (age 7) trains 16 hours a week in a pre-comp program (no competing for at least a year, maybe two), I have no idea what the future plans are, and it's honestly driving me crazy. Her coach is amazing and extremely smart with the response on how DD is doing "she's progressing well and is right where she should be"...that's the response for all the girls in the group. I totally understand the stock response and I know if there was a problem or concern we'd hear about it, but as a planner by nature it kills me having no idea where they think she could be next year...ahhh. Okay, maybe there's a little CGM there too ;-).

 

[poodlemomma]

I am usually a drop and go parent. My daughter has a mild learning disability. If she gets frustrated on something, isn't quite getting what the coach is telling her and she asks me to help, I will come to a couple of practices, listen to what the coaches are saying and then try to explain what they are saying to her so she understands it. So far, I haven't messed her up and it has helped. I have only had to do this a few times. Her coaches have been wonderful in general.

 

[leotardmakermum]

I'm a drop and go parent. I usually come back to see about the last 10 mins. I have an excellent relationship with her coach, which I really appreciate, as we can talk freely with her about my daughter's issues relating to food and energy, and confidence and fear.

While I do try to recognise different skills, I have no idea really about the ones that my daughter is looking towards on bars, particularly. I know there is a difference between an endo and a stalder, (I think they go round the bar in opposite directions?) but I don't really understand. With time, I think I'll get there, but I'll always be behind the eight-ball and I'm sure that will frustrate my daughter.

I've realised that asking my daughter, "Did you get such and such a skill tonight?" puts more pressure on her, and she doesn't need that from me. So I just let her tell me. Or she sits there in the car on the way home and says, "You haven't asked me if I got any new skills tonight." And then I know I'm supposed to and allowed to ask.

I'm totally onto the whole injury thing. I'm at her to ice, rest, stretch, do her exercises. I figure I'm paying for this and I want her ready to train/compete. As her parent, it's my job to provide my daughter to the gym well fed, well rested, well loved and well cared for.

 

[needcoffee]

I'm totally cray cray but not in the way that I've read about on here. I cheer for my DDs teammates and even the other teams. I always tell my dd what an amazing job she did even if she fell off the beam 825794 times. I don't care in the slightest how much time she gets on each station or how much her coach likes her. I don't watch practice ever.

I do however like to learn the names of all the skills. I do get DD to video some of her skills at practice to show me (all the kids do this, coach is cool with it). I do totally look up all the scores after each meet. I do get pissed off at the governing body for how they arrange the award groups at each meet (they way they do it is really unfair IMO, usually 2-3 kids out of a group are the only ones that miss out, and it's the same kids missing out and the same kids winning every time, they never compete against anyone different).

At the end of the day, all I care about it that my dd is a good friend, team member and a good sport. Everything else is small potatoes.

 

[Sasha]

I'm a pretty involved parent, as I knew ZERO about the sport coming in, and I'm a very curious and analytical person who wants to know everything about everything always. Also very social and wants to know everybody. This combo is a risk for Crazy-Busybody syndrome, but I mostly keep it at bay having CB as a great resource for things I am dying to know or check my feelings about! In reality, I am actually the person who plays defense on any criticisms of coaching, schedule changes, gym policies, etc. and tries to help everyone see the other side to things. A benefit of trying to analyze and understand everything is better seeing all sides and sharing that perspective with others in times of criticism.

So I still watch quite a bit as I work all day and it's relaxing to watch my kiddos and their teammates after work, and chat with other parents who drop in. It's fun for me (ask me again down the road when they are doing release moves and I may have a different perspective, though!).

And being analytical, I want to understand scores and points, and judging criteria,etc, as that makes the sport more fun for me as an observer. I'm getting pretty good now at spotting the little unlocked legs, slight arches, and leg separations that go by at .00001 seconds and make the difference between a 9.1 routine and a 9.5.