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My best friend in high school was a cheerleader and battled a lot of demons to be on the squad, including bulimia in an attempt to be as skinny as possible but still "enjoying" food. I'm convinced had she NOT been on the cheerleading squad, she would not have had such a bad body image.
I wouldn't be quite so convinced. It probably would have come out some other way.
This is one of the reasons why I am not a fan of cheerleading. I have a friend who fractured her skull when she was dropped during a cheerleading routine. It can be incredibly dangerous. I can't imagine why parents would allow their daughter to be thrown in the air above a hard basketball floor.
I also dislike the notion of putting girls on "display" for the games in regular sideline cheerleading. My oldest daughter suddenly wants to do this, and I am not really happy about it. She is in high school though so she is at the point where I want her to actively pick her own activities. So I may have to cringe my way through that process. We won't have to deal with this question though for months since she missed this cheerleading season.
When I was in high school a friend of a friend missed a turn or something doing a gymnastics type move...a back tuck or something...during cheerleading tryouts and broke her neck, making her a quadriplegic at age 14. It can definitely be dangerous. Gymnastics too...my parents were afraid of me getting injured so they let me do ice skating instead, which is also quite dangerous in its own right. Never understood that one actually! It was great though. Loved figure skating.
I'm not really a fan of the whole cheerleading culture, from the popularity contest aspect, to the lack of safety equipment for what they're doing. So I'd try to discourage it, to be honest. My daughter is 12 and is very much NOT interested in being a cheerleader; she's more of the artsy type. If she did a u-turn between now and high school (which is always possible) and wanted to become a cheerleader... not sure how I'd handle it. Probably mild discouragement rather than outright forbidding it.
My daughter tried out for cheerleading. The coach made such a fuss about how pretty she is and looks like Nastia Lukin. During a pre-tryout practice my daughter got upset and teary eyed about messing something up. At the end of the practice, the coach called her out in front of everyone and said how lame it was that she lost her cool.
I was very proud my daughter persisted (I would never have gone back) but she didn't make the squad. I was very relieved. No way I wanted that beyotch to have any responsibility for my child's well being. She is taking dance classes instead, and the dance teacher is a good role model. The girls choreograph their own dance routines and have a lot of creative input. I'm so happy at the way it turned out. My daughter would have been bored to death standing on the sidelines at games waiting to perform a cheer that hasn't changed since the 80s. Girls do not get to choreograph their own cheers.
So, cheerleading in general? Okay. But clearly the whole emphasis on appearance and image can have a negative impact.
So, yes: we would have "allowed", and kept our lips zipped. But we would have stopped buying properties for her trust funds, and she would not have been on an equal standing with her brothers in our wills. We would have considered ourselves failures as parents, had she turned out to be like that.
How incredibly sad and narrow-minded. Heaven forbid your daughter live a life you didn't sign off on.
If they really wanted to, yes. My youngest mentioned cheerleading last year and my hubby and I kind of got that nervous giggle and told her she missed signups (huge sigh of relief from us). If she mentions it again this year we'll let her but it's not something I'm seeking out for her or thrilled with the prospect of. I'd rather them be the main event versus a side show to the main event. Whether that be sports, art, music, whatever.
At 6 years old and 34lbs we told her that if she chose to be a cheerleader she'd likely be the one on the top of the pyramid or thrown up in the air. She was fine with that.
Hopefully she sticks with hockey like her older sister.
My boss's daughter just graduated and she was in cheer/competitive cheer. She advised my daughter not to do it.
My daughter was a cheerleader when she was very young but as she grew older, some of the girls that became cheerleaders were hoity-toity little turds, so she quit.
If my daughter had expressed interest in being a cheerleader, I would've supported that......would've been a hypocrite otherwise, as I'd tried out for the cheerleading squad myself at one point.
If they really wanted to, yes. My youngest mentioned cheerleading last year and my hubby and I kind of got that nervous giggle and told her she missed signups (huge sigh of relief from us). If she mentions it again this year we'll let her but it's not something I'm seeking out for her or thrilled with the prospect of. I'd rather them be the main event versus a side show to the main event. Whether that be sports, art, music, whatever.
At 6 years old and 34lbs we told her that if she chose to be a cheerleader she'd likely be the one on the top of the pyramid or thrown up in the air. She was fine with that.
Hopefully she sticks with hockey like her older sister.
My boss's daughter just graduated and she was in cheer/competitive cheer. She advised my daughter not to do it.
Did she say why, and why she stuck with it all those years if she didn't like it?
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