Actually, your post is not at all correct. The article itself is not the question, the question is... What was the article posted to imply? This thread was about parents who need help with situations at their child's cheer gym. Posting an article that points back to the parents is a deflection. As a general rule, I agree with the information in the article. In this context, I do not. ANY parent who has a child in cheer has a slightly different view of parenting than what is preached in that article. The article noes NOT only point out that parents try to solve all their kid's problems. It also speaks to "organized activity" as not being as healthy for development as spontaneous activity....playing doctor, riding bikes. Kids are dependant on parents until they are adults; and there is good reason for that. I will repeat, MY personal discussion here is about the problems we encounter at our cheer gym. I do not know a single cheer gym owner who is a qualified child psychologist. Atempting to improve parenting by the gym owners and coaches is every bit as arrogant as attempting to control coaching by parents. Both things are wrong. This discussion was about the problem parents and kids have with coaches and gym owners. Does that clear things up at all?

And this is where two things should be remembered...

#1 As all converstaions do in normal everyday life, they take twists and turns. We all know what the original topic was about. We are just doing what we do, having a converstation. Sometimes talking about beans turns into talking about oranges.... And sometimes it turns into talking about planes. It doesn't mean we aren't considering what the original topic was about or that we are turning the oranges against the beans and planes. We are just talking is all.

#2 You can be a good parent without being in every single arguement, every single moment of your childs life from school, to cheer, to the phone to going to the bathroom. That's not the point. I allow my child to make decisions. I allow her to argue, make mistakes and the such. BUT ALSO, i am with her every single part of her day. I take her to school, pick her up, sit thru every single practice, eat dinner with her, watch tv with her (we even watch the same tv shows and she IS allowed to watch ANYTHING she wants to, even stuff with sex and all.... if it's good show we watch it together and discuss everything. She watches stuff most of you would CRINGE watching with your kid. But we are close and she is smart) I am there every step of her day with the exception of in her classes.

And yet, I don't jump in every single time there's a problem. And there are. She doesn't agree with going down a level on her team. She doesn't like a few of the boys on her team. She doesn't like how her coach handles particular things. I don't tell her that she's wrong or right. I allow her to discuss these thing with me and if she's WAY off, I tell her what I think also. But she isn't forced to agree with me. Believe me, we don't agree A LOT. She's 14 for God's sake. I hate some of the hairdo's and some of the clothes. BUT WE DISCUSS THESE THINGS.

So there is a fine line between being a parent, an absent parent and a too involved parent. Do I cross these lines sometimes? Or I am SURE I do. But what makes us ALLLLLLLL good parents is..... our love for our children. We will never all agree on what is right and wrong just the same as all of our children are different. But what I would really like to stress to all of you is this...

Let's learn from each other. I read every one of your posts with eagerness. I may agree with some, disagree with others. But I DO take what you say to heart and try my best to see where each of you are coming from. When I post, I do not put your views down nor do I ignore the plight of the original poster. I go along with conversation and hope that what I say impacts some of you just a tiny tiny bit. I am a mom like you, a friend like you, a sister/brother/family member like you. I do care what you have to say.

And so I ask that you all at least do just a little of the same and know that each of us are NOT trying to ignore what the first person asked. Each of us do not agree with gyms, coaches and parents every single time. But as I have seen so far, this is a wonderful topic and I have learned so very very much so far. Let's not allow it to be tainted with thoughts of "you are not staying on topic, or you aren't supporting your gym or your kids." We all know this isn't true. Let's be the best we can be and the most supportive we can be also.

My "smart mom" out there is a person who I didn't agree with a lot of the time, a person I argued with a lot of the time but also a person who I admire ALL of the time because she taught me so many things in life. And thru it all, we will always be friends, not because we were on the same team, but because we supported each other no matter the disagreements, the situation, the passing of time and the distance between us. Let's support each other BECAUSE we are different, not because we are the same....

This is a good argument. I am nervous to say what I think because I think my owner will be mad but I agree with the ladies who are saying the things about the gyms. I have heard our owners talk alot aboutthe moms and they think they no it all and they are not right.

Thanks for the support......Now if only the people doing the work could say that...

I would like to know what it means also.???

Oh well, whoever made that comment about people doing the work isn't going to reply, so I am going to move on. I sometimes question the techniques used by the coaches at our gym, but I am reluctant to say anything. I understand, most of the time. Our results are ok, but screaming seems old after awhile. Are all gyms like that? The gyms that have the good reps, are the coaches super strict, mean, or yell all the time? I wonder?

Oh yes I have heard of a lot of screaming in our gym with certain coaches... not all of course.... sometimes worse, belittling the kids and making them feel terrible about themselves..... not necessary or right to do that. There are better ways to handle than making a child feel they are no good or worthless to the team. Just my two cents.

whats the "summer crew"?