Are we crazy parents?

The midget loves gymnastics. In fact she insists that someday she will be in the Olympics. And even though that is a serious long shot I want to support her as much as I can in this. But how do we do that with out going over the edge into insane gym parent?

We are not the parents leaning over the observation rail to yell at their kid when they mess up. We are not the parents outside the gym giving their kid a talking to about how they need to get serious. We don't yell, or fuss, or anything like that.

What we do though is try to be what I like to think of as supportive. We do that by paying for privates each week, and having mats, a bar, and a beam at the house.

But is even that over the edge? I mean she is 6 and most gyms don't even compete at level 3.

Part of the questioning of this comes down to attitude. Last year she was so serious about everything and so focused. And this year she seems just a bit more lax. But I am not sure that is a bad thing. And the last thing in the world I want to do is push her to hating what she loves so much.

And who knows, maybe the Olympics are in her future. Or if not that perhaps a college scholarship. Or maybe she will get to be 12 or 13 and decide to throw it all away. I just hope that I support her when she needs it, and push her when it is right. In my personal experience I always have felt that baseball was my game, but one bad experience (bad coach) and I just up and quit and I really think that was a time my parents should have pushed a little. But now I wonder if they went through the same kind of second guessing I am here.

But enough of that, I have a funny story to relate. It does tie into this whole post though.

Midget came to her Mom and said, "Mommy, I haven't gotten to be on TV yet and I want to be."

Mommy, "Well we can try to do something about that, but it will take a lot of work. You will have to pick between TV and gymnastics."

Midget thinks about it for a few minutes and says, "Well I will get to be on TV when I go to the Olympics so I will just do gymnastics."

LOL