This week, I met a lady from a small town near here. We were in a cheerleading shop (I help out there) and she started talking about her daughters competing in dance and cheer and that they had just come from a national competition. She said they got cheated out of their win, which made me inwardly roll my eyes and think that I had a “cheerleading mom” on my hands. I’ve worked with skating moms, soccer moms, acting moms and all kinds of moms who are living through their children, but that’s another story.
This mom’s daughter was competing in an 11 and under group at a competition in Kansas City. The group that beat them had some girls that she said looked older than 11, but the coach didn’t want to put up the $200 it would cost them to challenge them. Later that evening, the coach was in a restaurant, seated next to some of the girls on the winning team. They started talking and the coach asked one of the girls how old she was. The girl, not realizing she was talking to a coach, said she was 17, but her coach said to say she was 11. There were other 17 years olds on the team, too. Needless to say, the other team has gone back and challenged the win. The winning team is now bragging on their website that they are national champions, which further aggravates the other team, especially the parents who spent a lot of time and money to get the girls to that competition.
I can’t tell you how appalling this is to me as a grandmother, mother, person. What kind of parents let their kids work with a coach who teaches the kids to cheat? What kind of coach wants to win so badly that she teaches kids to lie? What 17 year old would feel comfortable competing against 11 year olds? I know I would have known that was wrong when I was 17. I was in college when I was 17 and 11 year olds were in grade school, for heaven’s sake. The women of my generation fought so hard for girls to be able to compete in sports for this? Not that it doesn’t happen in all kids’ sports, I’m sure.
My family is very competitive, but we try to play fair and teach our children right from wrong. I don’t want to sermonize here because the story speaks for itself, but come on, parents! Teach your children to do the right thing. How else are we going to make this a better world for the next generations?
This photo I found to illustrate this is perfect. Note the name of the team – Madness. My state of mind over this…
Confetti Thoughts 
Amen to that!!!
I take pleasure in, cause I found just what I was having a look for.
You have ended my four day lengthy hunt!
God Bless you man. Have a nice day. Bye
Woah! I’m really loving the template/theme of this
website. It’s simple, yet effective. A lot of times it’s very difficult to get
that “perfect balance” between usability and visual appeal.
I must say that you’ve done a very good job with this.
Also, the blog loads super quick for me on Chrome. Outstanding
Blog!
Thanks so much! I’ve kept it simple because I don’t want to spend time on the site rather than writing & taking photos. I’ve got to start writing more again – too much life happening it seems.
Nice post. I learn something totally new and challenging on sites
I stumbleupon on a daily basis. It’s always interesting to read through content from other writers and practice
a little something from other sites.
Thank you. There are a lot of amazing writers out there, which is a wonderful thing for all of us.
First off I would like to say awesome blog! I had a quick question that
I’d like to ask if you don’t mind. I was curious to find out
how you center yourself and clear your head before writing.
I’ve had a hard time clearing my thoughts in getting my ideas out there.
I truly do enjoy writing but it just seems like the first 10
to 15 minutes are generally wasted just trying to figure out how to begin. Any suggestions or
hints? Thanks!
Good question. You’d think with my kids grown and gone and me mostly retired that there would be plenty of quiet time. I was going to write today, but right now my three dogs are jumping around barking at something. Writing is a different process for everyone. I seem to think about it for awhile or get an idea that seems right and then it kind of comes together so when I start writing, it takes off on its own. I spend more time thinking about photos and uploading them to go with the story, since that seems to make it more interesting sometimes. I’ve tried to blog when I’m traveling, which I can do to some extent, but I’m so busy when I’m out there that I’m exhausted. I think the opening and the ending are important and sometimes take me the longest. Sometimes, I come to a stop and then I fumble around for the ending and decide to keep it simple. Someone told me that a blog should be about 500 words, which works sometimes. Depends on what I’m writing about, I guess. It’s easy when I have lots of pictures to have fewer words. I started out doing about 3 blogs a week. I’m doing 1-2 right now, not because I don’t have the ideas. I have a notepad with a list of ideas that I add to or cross off. I think I can write about anything, which may be true if I get myself into a routine. I’m not much help, am I? Thanks for the compliments – I always appreciate anyone who reads what I write!
That is a great tip particularly to those new to the blogosphere.
Short but very precise info… Thank you for sharing this one.
A must read post!
Thank you!