Two more weeks

I am in cheerleading hell.  I fully acknowledge that after five months I have come to the conclusion that I am not cut out to be the mom of a competitive cheerleader.  I am anxiously counting down the days of this "pre-team".  Two weeks from today and I will be free!!!

What is there to not like?  I really hate that practice takes up two nights of my week with a third going to a tumbling for cheer class.  I don't like sitting in the upstairs glassed-in observatory room that smells most days like a gym locker and old McDonalds.  I hate sitting in a room that has no lights on because some moms have decided that there is a glare with the lights on and that bothers them so the rest of us must sit in darkness so they won't miss a moment of their daughter's performance.

I am okay with the fact that I will never be a "front row honey" peering at my prodigy the entire time she is practicing.  Sitting in the front row does not make you a honey, it is all about your attitude.   Front row honey's are those mom's who arrive extra early to ensure a front row seat because they cannot bear to miss one moment of their daughter's practices.  Some days I smell lots of missed opportunity with a smattering of "I want my daughter to be just like me" in the air in the parents observatory.   The emails that I receive are filled with words like extra practice and mandatory.  Did I mention she is eight years old?

So the question to me always is, "Why did you let her do it?"  The answer is because she has wanted to be a cheerleader since she was four years old.   She worked very hard this past fall on a recreational league team and improved greatly.   So we decided to let her work on her skills by doing this pre-team.  I am actually glad that we did this pre-team because Abby will never wonder what it would have been like.  She actually said the other night, "I will be so glad when this over."

Don't get me wrong.  The gym does a phenomenal job.  They have a top-notch program with some of the best coaches in allstar cheerleading and I never doubt that Abby is in great hands. They have amazing results, recently coming home with seven first place finishes, five second place finishes and several thirds at Nationals.  This isn't your mother's "Firecracker, Firecracker, Boom, Boom, Boom."  Any person that would tell me that these girls are not athletes has not watched them in the gym.   They work so hard during practice and what they are able to do is nothing short of amazing.  Their coaches are hard core and don't tolerate goofing off and inattention.   

It just isn't for us though.  I don't have the ability to act like cheerleading is that important, it isn't.  It's cheerleading.  The hard core mom's are their own brand of crazy and I want no part.   I suspect that nothing that requires that my daughters devote all of their attention and time to it will be on my list of things to become involved in, unless it is schoolwork that will get them into a good college. 

Two more weeks, just two more weeks