Parents When is time to move on?

[ReluctantGymMom]

So, I have been at the mercy of insane schedules many times. The fact of the matter is, they're not going to schedule an entire team around you. Which is what you're essentially asking them to do, because your 17 hours a week practice times force other levels to move around. Maybe before season, your days and their days aligned, and maybe now the coach has some other responsibility they need to deal with at the time you originally agreed to. Staff is hard to come by, there are far more kids than coaches available, and you either suck it up and deal with the times, or move.

My daughter's gym has several locations, and the one she was at, she loves the coaches, but because they have other jobs, the time they scheduled practice at for summer was not possible for me, so we moved to another location. Now next week they're holding practice at 9 am, I start work at 8 am, and no one is available to pick her up at 1 pm. We just suck it up and either go or don't go; many families won't be going because of work responsibilities.

Also 17 hours is too much for level 3; at level 3 I had my daughter doing other sports and theatre.

 

[JBS]

No shot at level 4… how can you tell that young/early on. What are you looking for ? Wouldn’t they need to be further along to see scholarship potential? I say this as a parent who has no gymnastics background it’s a honest question.

Is it possible to tell at Level 4 if they will get a scholarship or not... no... well maybe is some cases.

In this case it's all about using the other information that I had...

1. While they were only going to come to 50% of the gym workouts... they were going to attend 100% of the swimming workouts.
2. She was the youngest of 5 kids in the family... all swimmers... some already swimming for colleges.
3. They did not want her in gymnastics if she had no shot at a scholarship... so the basic reasoning for doing gymnastics was flawed in the first place.

So then it was... "pick" a sport. Pick here and I will run her on a "scholarship" path / timeline. Based on her age... we were a year or two behind so we would have had to pick up the pace. Basically 4 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10. This path made perfect sense to them based on scholarships with their other kids... they saw that it was an extremely challenging path... so they picked swimming.

My path for her was very realistic as to what she would need to do... however... it meant 5 days per week of gymnastics... quitting swimming... and still statistically having a very very large failure rate.

 

[GYMMOMSROCK88!]

So, I have been at the mercy of insane schedules many times. The fact of the matter is, they're not going to schedule an entire team around you. Which is what you're essentially asking them to do, because your 17 hours a week practice times force other levels to move around. Maybe before season, your days and their days aligned, and maybe now the coach has some other responsibility they need to deal with at the time you originally agreed to. Staff is hard to come by, there are far more kids than coaches available, and you either suck it up and deal with the times, or move.

My daughter's gym has several locations, and the one she was at, she loves the coaches, but because they have other jobs, the time they scheduled practice at for summer was not possible for me, so we moved to another location. Now next week they're holding practice at 9 am, I start work at 8 am, and no one is available to pick her up at 1 pm. We just suck it up and either go or don't go; many families won't be going because of work responsibilities.

Also 17 hours is too much for level 3; at level 3 I had my daughter doing other sports and theatre.

I totally get that. I just expect communication and conversation like I gave to them but I think that is not existent or realistic in this sport. Like I’ve said and I don’t know how to close the thread… I will definitely be looking into all options and possibilities once the season is over for a situation that fits us better.

 

[JPC13]

I thought the issue was mental health? This thread is a mess.

 

[GYMMOMSROCK88!]

I thought the issue was mental health? This thread is a mess.

I think your on the wrong thread. People are discussing numerous things. I probably mentioned here but may have been somewhere else, that I think balance is mentally good for young kids, especially in level 3, and that it isn’t probably mentally the best idea to go so hard so young at a young age in a one sport mindset. So I’m not sure what your referring to. If you don’t agree or understand definitely don’t have to comment. No need to say anything is a mess.

 

[WV Gym Mom]

A couple things -

While I hate that kids are pushed to "specialize" early, I think two high-commitment competitive sports are always going to collide. At level 4, we have plenty of girls that take dance, or play soccer, etc. And we make it work.

If your daughter wants to do both, I would think switching to another gym would be an option...one with less hours....our gym has level threes doing 8 hours, two days a week, and they all do well.

Also, an observation - when the gym schedule changed (which can happen in any sport), you are only talking about adjusting to miss gym, and about the gym not being flexible.
What about the Dance studio? If you still want to do both, why not have them work with you to adjust time there as well? I believe you said you are already missing some gym time?