She skips, turns, and does forward rolls. Caitlin sings, "I do gymnastics. Watch me flip." When we watch the Olympic gymnastics on the TV, Caitlin feel compelled to participate.
I'm not sure if I want Caitlin to take gymnastics lessons. I took lessons and competed from the age of 5 till I was 15. I coached for 4 more years after that. I loved being upside down. I loved flipping. I loved working hard to get a new skill. So why do I feel conflicted about Caitlin wanting to do gymnastics. I think gymnastics is one of the reasons I had such a bad body image. I am not a petite person (not even as a kid). I was always the biggest girl on the team. Even though I wasn't fat I thought I was because I had a bigger frame. At 5 feet 6 inches I am a giant in the gymnastics world. Would I have had body image issues even if I wasn't a gymnast? It is hard to say but walking around in a leotard 4 days a week and comparing figures didn't help. I never developed an eating disorder but I had some unhealthy habits. I even brought diet pills once but thankfully chickened out before I took them.
Gymnastics definitely had some positive effects on me too. Physically it helped to make me really strong. I was in the best shape of my life. It also taught me that hard work pays off. You have to practice a lot and do conditioning in order to gain new skills. There are no ways to cheat in order do that layout with the full twist.
So if Caitlin asks to take gymnastics lessons will I let her take them? Probably. Right now she is only 3 years old, I am going to expose her to lots of sports and activities. When she gets older I will let her decide what she wants to do. I hope that she choses soccer or basketball, sports I think she has a good chance of excelling at. Sports I wish I tried sooner.
4 comments:
Remember when you did one of them no arm cartwheel thingies in the hall in front of the Blumer's art room?
And also, my friends with teenaged kids say to pray your kids never get into soccer or hockey, because they seem to have the biggest sports time commitment, at least for team sports. Plus they go on all year!!! What do you wanna bet Eva ends up doing both!
ooohhh....can't wait to put my little girl in gymnastics.... I bet you love watching her;-)
I took gymnastics for like 3 days. I fell off the balance beam, you know the one that is like 2 feet off the ground, and that was the end of my storied career.
I took a couple of gymnastics classes but quit because I didn't want to be barefoot...weird kid...I quit ballet too because a little girl pushed me out of her way and I dropped out of soccer (and preschool) for awhile...hmmm...I never realized all of these "issues" I apparently had/have...there's the root of my current social issues I guess...as for time commitments, YOU decide how much committing to do. I think you're right in having your kids try out all kinds of things and then to "settle in" to what they most enjoy...but I understand your gymnastics concerns completely, though there are plenty of non-gymnasts with body-image issues too...ugh! It ain't easy all these decisions...
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