Sunday, 22 July 2018

Daughter's friend's (both 8F) gymnastics obsession - AIBU?


Reddit, am I being unreasonable?My daughter has been friends with this girl since they were babies. They're quite different personalities but they seem to have maintained a friendship. To complicate it further, I am friends with the mother too (we were friends from pregnancy).So, daughter's friend is hugely into gymnastics. Her mother seems to base a lot of her own success in her child's success so she gets new leotards as rewards for good behaviour and she's expected to practice a lot. If she jumps off a wall as kids do, the mother says "that wasn't straight enough" and she was discouraged from trick or treating so she wouldn't miss gym class. She's also been strict with her about not breaking bones or she "won't be in the Olympics" . All of this has created a really unhealthy obsession within the child where I think her self esteem is caught up in it.My daughter tried gym, gave it a year and didn't get too far. She's not the most dedicated or physically capable kid when it comes to sports so she decided to give it up and explore other things. Her friend has done quite well but she's not winning competitions or anything.The issue is that they can never have a play date without gymnastics being involved. Over the years my daughter has just learned to get on with it and I suspected it would not go down well if I were to say anything. But it's making my daughter feel bad. She goes over, and she's expected to play "coach" or "big sister" while her friend flips around and has fun. I'm not saying they never do other things but it's a huge focus a lot of the time. She would rather go play than not but she's just feeling bad about her physical ability because she's constantly not able to join in with this kid and her gym friends and she's having to live in this gym obsessed world to be able to play with her friend.So I spoke up. Oh reddit let me tell you that did not go well. The mother is not happy. She thinks my daughter is jealous, from what I gather and that I'm expecting her child not to do something she loves or that I want her to never do cartwheels in front of my daughter? I can't keep sending her there saying nothing... Is a little sensitivity too much to ask? I always remind my daughter to be inclusive.This kid trains for hours and hours 3 to 4 days a week, she has beams and bars in her home... And somehow my daughter is asking too much to not want to do gym for 75% of their play? I'm not even saying never.Am I being unreasonable? via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2myA545

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