- Apr 1, 2010
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- 614
What cheer mom hasn't? Unless you never stay at the gym...or your gym closes practice...but even then if there is a place for parents to gather your going to have gossip.
Back in AZ we would have parents talk about kids right in front of their parents all the time...My oldest was not the strongest tumbler but made up for it in other areas. One time I was in the back of the room reading and overheard a mom saying "Ugg I don't know why that little fat kid is on our team, she can't tumble and our team is never going to win with her on it." I spoke up and said "yeah that's my kid..." I think she melted into the floor. Funny enough that team went on to be undefeated locally as a Youth 2, it wasn't until we went to Nationals that we came in 2nd (and it wasn't due to lack of tumbling).
Worse is competitive gymnastics...especially pre-elite. When you think your kid is next Nastia or Shawn, it's amazing the things people will say. One mom would sit in the viewing area and compare her child to all the others, including picking apart our kids technique or strength. I was never more happy when then decided to move her kid to pre-team!
At a gymnastics place that I used to coach, their was a mom who started a rumor that another girls dad would take advantage of the kids when they would go to sleepovers or whatever. Cops were involved and everything. Nothing came of this, just the mom didn't want the girl to have friends because she was the next one in line to go elite.