Daring-Do!
My daughter is afraid of rides... Oh, she likes riding a bike, riding in the car, riding on a boat (specifically a cruise ship!) but she doesn't like any type of ride that makes her "stomach hurt"... Carnival Rides (excluding Carnival Cruise lines), bumpy rides, roller coaster rides, you name it... They simply make her nauseous.
When she was younger we signed her up for gymnastics because, well... Partly because she was spinning cartwheels all over the place but mostly because I felt guilty that we hadn't signed either of our kids up for any 'Sports' activities. We were the 'black sheep' of the neighborhood. While other parents were driving their kids all over town... To soccer, baseball, swimming, basketball, track, dance... etc, etc, etc. The Blystone kids quite simply, played in the yard... My son building unique contraptions and my daughter collecting critters from the nearby woods.... The lack of participation in organized sports wasn't because we were cheap... Our kids were just never that interested. SO, when I got the flyer for Gymnastics I asked my daughter if she'd like to try it and YES... She said she did!!! I would finally be one of those mom's that rush around town at dinner time getting my kid to her sports activity. Why? Why, should I be so excited about this intrusion on my routine? Why, because I just wanted to seem, and I wanted my kids to seem more normal to my friends.
Thus began 8 weeks of Gymnastics. My daughter had the leotard (she looked so cute!) and she was walking the balance beam and perfecting her cartwheels! But by week 4 I began to notice that she wasn't getting excited about going to class... She in fact started acting quite aprehensive about Gymnastics. So I asked her what the problem was... "Mom, it's the Penny Drop... It makes my tummy hurt!"... "The Penny Drop? What the heck is that?" I said. Turns out the 'Penny Drop' is a move on the parallel bars where you hang on the the top bar with your legs spread apart and feet on the bottom bar, then you reach down between your legs with both hands and flip off the bar... Or something like that... It's been years, I reallly can't remember too well. I only know that each week my daughter was getting less and less excited about gymnastics.
My husband and I try our best to teach our kids the lessons that we find important... One of them being, when you start something you should see it to completion... That's why my daughter ended up finishing out the entire 8 week Gymnastics session. Was she proud to have earned her little patch? Not in the least, because receiving a patch for something she didn't enjoy was insconsequential to her.
So back to my daughters weak constitution for tummy turning activities... Yesterday she went out on our friends boat and was told she just HAD to try 'Tubing'... She told us later, "I knew, I just knew, I wasn't going to like it... That it was going to make my stomach hurt... And it DID!" "So why did you do it then?" we asked. "Because my friend wouldn't stop bugging me and I knew she'd be mad if I didn't try it!"
This is where my emotions become quite mixed. I'm proud of her for trying something that she was obviously uncomfortable about doing... On the other hand, her reason for doing it seems all wrong. I KNOW my daughters friend would never convince her to do something dangerous or harmful (Her friend is much too responsible for that)... But, I also want my daughter to stand up for herself and not feel she has to conform to what others might expect of her... In essence I don't want her to be like her mom who thought it was important to sign her daughter up for an organized sport so she'd appear more normal to the other moms in the neighborhood.
When she was younger we signed her up for gymnastics because, well... Partly because she was spinning cartwheels all over the place but mostly because I felt guilty that we hadn't signed either of our kids up for any 'Sports' activities. We were the 'black sheep' of the neighborhood. While other parents were driving their kids all over town... To soccer, baseball, swimming, basketball, track, dance... etc, etc, etc. The Blystone kids quite simply, played in the yard... My son building unique contraptions and my daughter collecting critters from the nearby woods.... The lack of participation in organized sports wasn't because we were cheap... Our kids were just never that interested. SO, when I got the flyer for Gymnastics I asked my daughter if she'd like to try it and YES... She said she did!!! I would finally be one of those mom's that rush around town at dinner time getting my kid to her sports activity. Why? Why, should I be so excited about this intrusion on my routine? Why, because I just wanted to seem, and I wanted my kids to seem more normal to my friends.
Thus began 8 weeks of Gymnastics. My daughter had the leotard (she looked so cute!) and she was walking the balance beam and perfecting her cartwheels! But by week 4 I began to notice that she wasn't getting excited about going to class... She in fact started acting quite aprehensive about Gymnastics. So I asked her what the problem was... "Mom, it's the Penny Drop... It makes my tummy hurt!"... "The Penny Drop? What the heck is that?" I said. Turns out the 'Penny Drop' is a move on the parallel bars where you hang on the the top bar with your legs spread apart and feet on the bottom bar, then you reach down between your legs with both hands and flip off the bar... Or something like that... It's been years, I reallly can't remember too well. I only know that each week my daughter was getting less and less excited about gymnastics.
My husband and I try our best to teach our kids the lessons that we find important... One of them being, when you start something you should see it to completion... That's why my daughter ended up finishing out the entire 8 week Gymnastics session. Was she proud to have earned her little patch? Not in the least, because receiving a patch for something she didn't enjoy was insconsequential to her.
So back to my daughters weak constitution for tummy turning activities... Yesterday she went out on our friends boat and was told she just HAD to try 'Tubing'... She told us later, "I knew, I just knew, I wasn't going to like it... That it was going to make my stomach hurt... And it DID!" "So why did you do it then?" we asked. "Because my friend wouldn't stop bugging me and I knew she'd be mad if I didn't try it!"
This is where my emotions become quite mixed. I'm proud of her for trying something that she was obviously uncomfortable about doing... On the other hand, her reason for doing it seems all wrong. I KNOW my daughters friend would never convince her to do something dangerous or harmful (Her friend is much too responsible for that)... But, I also want my daughter to stand up for herself and not feel she has to conform to what others might expect of her... In essence I don't want her to be like her mom who thought it was important to sign her daughter up for an organized sport so she'd appear more normal to the other moms in the neighborhood.
posted by EmBee at 7:37 AM
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