Gym Mom

What is a gym mom?
A - Mother that goes to the gym regularly
B - Mother that wishes she could go to the gym
C - Mother of a gymnast who is too lazy to say the whole word so she shortens it to gym
If you guessed C, you are right.





Now, let me say, all the shows about dance moms and pageant moms are, to me, extreme.  I've found that gym moms are, for the most, part easy-going and laid back.  More like soccer moms who get to sit inside and pay more money.
I am the gym mom of a 6 year old Level 3 gymnast.  Never did I think I would have a competitive gymnast.  She started gym at 3 in the preschool class.  She was asked to continue in higher classes and here we are, in a great group of 5 girls competing.
Lexi attend sa great gym.  The owners are married - one a former Olympian and one her coach.  They are from Eastern Europe.  Their daughters coach alongside their mother, and they are serious.  They love the kids, but they pride themselves in creating elite gymnasts.  Now, we don't attend the gym because we are trying to be elite....we live here...it's 10 minutes from our house.  However, we do feel blessed to have such talented people running a gym so close to home.
So, after all of that lead in, let me say that gym moms have to find a balance just like any other _____ "mom."  Weekly, these topics come up:
1. I want to go all the way to Level 10!  (ouch the pocketbook!)
2. I want to quit - it's too hard! (I don't want you to quit just because it's hard!  Would you give up on reading or math?)
3. I love gym! (Whew...this is a happy day)
4. I don't want to go if we have to practice on Saturdays (well, I don't control the schedule)
5. I could go to gym everyday! (Really, didn't you just tell me something different yesterday?)
So, I'm left with how much is too much and how far is too far.  Other gym moms and I discuss this almost daily.  Is it bad that our kids have such big muscles and strong abs?  Should I be worried that my 6 year old girl can do more pullups than high school boys?  8 hours of practice each week seems like so much!  We never get a break to just chill!  I don't want her to give up when the going gets tough, but I don't want to force her to stay in something she doesn't like.  Where is the line?
In the end, we let our kids decide.  They don't get to decide all on their own though because they are 6, not 16.  We don't want them to have any regrets.  However, most moms don't want their kids to be miserable either.
I've always been a huge advocate for kids being kids.  I feel like gym is actually helping this, not hurting this.  Yes, she's busy, but she is in a disciplined sport, getting great exercise and hanging out 3 days a week with great girls with great parents.  She's not watching TV, playing video games, or hanging out with anyone without my approval.  At this point, gym is her bubble and she loves it!

So, as easy as it is to look at us gym moms and

think we are pushing our kids or living vicariously through them or making them stick with it for our own reasons, realize none of us are doing that.  We are trying, just like any other mom, to raise our kids with discipline, good values, strong character, and high self-esteem.  Luckily, they get all that at "the gym"!

No more Facebook

OK - So I've done it...I've deactivated my Facebook account.  There are a lot people asking me why.  Being the up front and honest person I am, I'll tell you.  There are several reasons.

1. We canceled our cable several years ago.  It has been a tremendous blessing.  The kids are exposed to so much less, we don't choose TV over playing outside, and I have been blessed to be Kardashian free!  On the flip side, I still had Facebook.  It seemed hypocritical to be a part of a network that could consume just as much, if not more of my time than the TV.  After ignoring the voice in my head for awhile, I finally decided it was enough.
2. I'm too nosy.  I had over 500 "friends."  Seriously, I know there are some people in the thousands, but there is no way I know 500 people well enough to read their business everyday or look at their private pictures.  I was bombarded with all this information about births and deaths, fights and friends...it was too much.  I know I could delete friends, but then I feel bad and the guilt takes away the fun.  I can't just ignore the posts because I'm so nosy so the only way to avoid it was to leave.
3. I'm too competitive.  Ok, if we are all honest, there's more than just me out there.  I worked my tail off through countless injuries to run a half marathon and the day after I accomplished it, someone posted they ran a full...really?!  Then there are all the my kid can do....and my family gets to go to....and look how awesome my abs are....and I have such awesome friends...It's not that I don't feel great about my family, friends, kids, etc.  It's just that when you are faced daily with the lives of other people, and you are really competitive in nature, it starts to make you compare.  I am BLESSED.  I don't need to compare myself with others, and I need to be free of anything that makes me feel less than what I am blessed to be.
4.  People disappoint me.  During the past football season and now during this political season, people have been just downright hateful and disrespectful.  I do not understand why people can't love each other and be kind.  It really just baffles me.  I hate seeing people I used to respect act like fools and I hate seeing that people can't listen to each other.  It scares me for my "friends" and it scares me for the future.  So, I will just deactivate and stick my head in the sand (again, I'm too nosy to just ignore the posts).

So, hopefully you can see through all of this that it was necessary for me.  It wasn't a security issue or a hate for Timeline or anything else.  Just personal...no judgement towards all those that do use it, just awareness that it's not for me.  

A Prayer from Lexi

As my first blog post, I am going back to my old-reliable - a Lexi-ism.  If you read my blog enough, you'll probably come to either love or loathe these, because they are frequent and I love to share them.  All of my posts won't contain her quotations nor will they all be about God, but to start off, I figured I'd go with something familiar and close to my heart.

So, tonight, Lexi (6) prays, "Dear God, thank you for letting Daddy play with me today.  And I'm really sorry for making a mess at dinner.  Please help me to do better.  And I really love you God.  Amen."

I wonder what God thinks when he hears this prayer.  I figure there are a few choices:
1. Crazy kid.  Doesn't she know I have better things to do than remind her to eat over her plate?
2. Poor kid.  Her Dad must not play with her much and obviously someone overreacted to a dinner time mess tonight.
3. Lucky kid.  What some of my children wouldn't give to have a dad to play with them and food to make messes with.
4. Precious kid.  I love that she loves her family.  I love that her family is teaching her manners.  I love that she loves Me.  I love that she has such innocence.  I love that she feels she can tell me even the smallest things.  I love that kid.

I figure God is a lot like us in some ways.  As a parent, he must run through the emotions, but in the end, He has led us in the way we should go and we are left to make the choices.  As I listen to Lexi pray, I'm a proud mom.  Not necessarily proud of everything she says (because God literally knows it's not always flattering to her parents), but proud that she has such innocence and confidence that God loves her and cares about what she has to say.

So, I figure the obvious answer is that God is thinking #4.  Not because it's the nicest, but because it's what I think.  And in the end, I think God is a proud parent just like me.