Three Chaotic Adventures: Adventures in Competitive Gymnastics

This summer has been so much fun! We have gone to the beach, gone to the Mountains, had fun with cousins, had more fun with cousins, and embarked on this new thing called competitive gymnastics!

Last April CB was asked to join the gymnastics team at the gym where she has been taking classes for the last two years. Her exact words were, "I have waited my whole life for this." She was 6. Now, six years IS a long time to wait. The big question was now, whether we were going to embark on this journey and let her do it.

Being on team means...weekend meets, traveling, several hours of week day practices, money, a lot of money. And she is young. She just turned 7 last month. Did we really want to start this now. I would also be lying if I didn't say there is a HUGE negative stigma out there associated with travel sports and I wasn't sure if we wanted to go down that road just yet. When you tell people your 7 year old is on the team, you do feel like you have to justify the decision. Which now that I have typed that out, it makes me sad a little bit. You do you my friends!! You know what is best for your kid. Don't let people make you feel like you should make different choices because they think you should! When you have prayerfully made a choice that you feel is the way you should go, be confident in that choice!

What I was sure of was that this was her "dream." When she walks into the gym, she is a different person. When she works hard to get a skill, she is over the moon excited. She practices at home. She asked for a weight set so she could get stronger. She loves being there. She asks if she can go to open gym every single day.

I know that gymnastics is going to teach her things that I can't. She is going to learn to concentrate. She is going to learn to fail. She is going to learn to take criticism. She is going to learn to do hard things. She is going to learn that she will fall down and get back up many, many times. School is always going to be difficult for her, and I'm praying that the things she learns in the gym translate into the classroom. These are the reasons we decided to go for it.

Do we think she is going to be an Olympian. Nope. Do we think she is going to be a college gymnast. Nope. Those things would not be bad, but they are not why we are doing this.

I love that her gym is full of affirmations. They stress the importance of being a team in an individual world. They teach them to cheer each other on and to build each other up. She is learning that friendship is important and she has made some friends that I am sure will be her friends for a long time. Raising girls in this me, me, me world is hard and I am happy she has a place where they recognize that even in a competitive sport we are still FOR each other!

After spending a summer practicing 8.5 hours a week, what I can tell you is that this little girl has found her "thing" for the time being ,and when it stops being her thing we will move on. However, I know we will have no regrets with starting her this early. She absolutely lights up when she is there.