Girls Trip to Toledo

Gas tank full ✔️ 

Snacks packed ✔️ 

Leotard clean ✔️ 

Grips in gym bag ✔️ 

Cash in wallet for entry fees ✔️

Location loaded into Google Maps ✔️  

Oh, dont forget we have to pay for parking too ✔️

ALL THE GLITTER HAIRSPRAY ✔️

Starbucks ✔️

Stop for a potty break ✔️

Stop for another potty break ✔️

This trip was just me and my gymnast I had to pull her out of school, because its a Friday. My son and and my husband are going about their day like any other, but for my daughter and I everything else waits, while we drive 2 and a half hours away for what could potentially, just like every other meet, be the best meet of her life! The Battle of Champions in Toledo, OH.

Gymnastics mom is not a job for the faint of heart.  Back in June, my 9 year old started practicing 4 days a week, 3 hours a day, as a level 4 competitive gymnast.  We pay for weekly classes, for all of the apparel required, for every participant fee for every meet, for her coaches compensation to travel to each of these meets, for pictures, etc.

I drove her to and from training all summer and all fall, to spend most of December, January and February on the road to Indy, Chicago, Ohio, Michigan and other surrounding gyms.  Each meet takes about 3 to 4 hours (per group or level) to get through each gymnast’s four apparati.  That’s right.  We sit there for 4 hours to watch our kids perform for a total of about 10 minutes.  And then we wait on baited breath to see if the judge watching them that day thought it was good enough to stand on the podium. Tenths of a point sometimes separate 1st from 2nd.  It can be heartbreaking when your child has the best routine of their life, but the little girl right after her does it just a tiny bit better and outscores your child by .05.  Or when last weekend she scored a 9.3 on bars, but for some reason this week, the judge only thought it was worth an 8.0?And we do it weekend after weekend!

We do it because we know that gymnastics teaches our children courage, strength, resilience, health, dedication and so many other valuable lessons and fundamentals.  We do it because we trust the coaches at LCG to give our kids opportunities and experiences that will shape them into good individuals.  We do it because our kids love it AND they have fun. We do it because our kids have formed such strong bonds and friendships…We do it because we love them!

This weekend we head to the Indiana State Fairgrounds, for the second time this season.  And so I start the checklist again…