Stage Mom Fright

Pageant Moms. Stage Moms. Helicopter Parents. You know what they are; those parents who live so vicariously through their kids that the child's success becomes the parent's greatest ambition. You've seen them yelling and screaming from the sidelines or lecturing a child after a disappointing performance. You may roll your eyes at their stupidity, but I have a secret fear that deep down I might be one of them.

Go ahead and laugh if you want, but be wary, one day you might find yourself in the same situation. You enroll your child in a fun extracurricular activity, and before long, something amazing happens. Your kid is actually good! With the coaches assuring you that talent like this doesn't walk through the door every day, before you know it you are spending all your time and a good portion of your money developing your little superstar. Watching your child win is intoxicating, and like an addict, you always want more. You dream of national titles and college scholarships until, one day, your kid comes to you and announces that she wants to quit. Then, it all comes crashing down, and that's what scares me.

Emily started gymnastics in kindergarten, and has amazed me with her success. She had always trained hard and loved it, until one day, when she just didn't. She was learning a flyaway, her first real dismount on bars, and just couldn't get it. Before long, she started complaining about gymnastics being too hard and that she wanted to quit. The news was surprisingly hard for both Mark and me, and was my first clue that I might be more emotionally involved in Emily's gymnastics than I thought. After a lot of of discussion, we decided that Emily should at least finish out the season before giving it up for good. Since then her love of gymnastics has waxed and waned with her progress on the flyaway. When the flyaway is good, she wants to train to be an Olympian. When the flyaway is bad, she is ready to quit. Each of these fluctuations is accompanied by a lot of drama, (This is Emily we are talking about.) and it is starting to be more than I can take. A closet stage mom can only have her dreams crushed so many times!

On Saturday Emily had a meet. She competed the flyaway for the first time, and did great. She won first place on bars, floor, and vault, fifth on beam (she fell off), and first all-around. Naturally, she is in no mood to quit for the time being. Here is her new bar routine. Her other routines were the same as she did at the last meet so I didn't bother posting them. If you'd like to see them, you can view them here.