Well here goes nothing...I might just me the only one out there who is not your "typical cheer mom," or maybe not.  Maybe there are quite a few of us who are just sitting back, enjoying the moment as you watch your daughter/son in cheer practice.  Or so you think you're "enjoying" watching your child practice, but really you're squirming in your own skin, biting your lip, and telling yourself not to turn around to tell "those" other "cheer moms" to just shut it already!

But before I go anything further, I want to just put it out their that my child is not involved in your typical cheer team...no, my child belongs to a "competitive cheer" team.  They're not the kinds you see at the sidelines of a popwarner-like football games shaking their "thang" and their shimmery poms-poms.  Nope, this type of cheer is "competitive," yeah I know I said that already, but it needs repeating, for my sake.  It's the type of cheer that in all honesty should be considered a "sport."  It's a physically taxing activity, that requires the athlete to build endurance, strength, and flexibility.  Injuries are not wanted and by all means something to be avoided, because it could cost the athlete the season.  It's competitive because teams actually compete against other teams and win titles.  There's even a "worlds" championship, which I've learned is televised on ESPN.  These are the competitive cheer events where you see girls being tossed up into the air and while airborne they do flips, twirls, splits, and whatever else a body can do while in mid-air, before gravity pulls them back and down into the arms of her "base."  It's nerve wracking to watch!  But at the same time, I guess it's pretty cool.

My child got involved in the world of competitive cheer 4 years ago.  Her friend invited her to watch at one of the competitions, which was in town.  It only took that one time for my daughter to get the "bug." Honestly, I don't know if I want to even thank my friend and her daughter for planting that seed.  You see, when I was in high school, I didn't like cheer....leaders...not the person per se...but just the group...okay, shoot, I'll just be honest, cheer was not at all my thing.  Cheer leading was something you either liked or hated or felt indifferent towards.  I had my moments of dislike and moments of indifference towards them...but never a moment where I liked....it.  I never once imagined that it was something that my own off spring would want to get involved in.  Now mind you, my experience of cheerleading is nowhere near what is today nor what's considered "competitive cheer," but, just the thought of having a cheerleader just does not roll out of my mouth easily, like a parent who would say, my child is in soccer, my child swims, plays baseball, etc.  I was already biased against cheerleaders and it was further reinforced when I would hear news about a "cheer mom" who had gone over the edge by planning and following through a plan to hurt her child's cheermate because a spot was wrongfully taken from her child.  Then to have my own child ask if she could take a break from doing gymnastics and try something new...like competitive cheer...well my first instinctive response was, "oh hell no..."  I mean, really?!  Are you serious?!  Why?!  Really?!  Oh wait...I forgot to mention that competitive cheer...costs money!!  Not that gymnastics didn't, but then again I also knew my child was not the next Nadia Comaneci.  Let's be serious here.  So, my child, who in my opinion, satisfied my own needs as a parent of participating in a sport that didn't require much of me, wants to try competitive cheer, which costs lots of money and take a break from gymnastics.  What the hell just happened?  Well, it's neither here nor there.  I knew what my husband and I had to do...as much as I didn't want my child to try the sport..(yes, it's a sport), I also knew that I wouldn't be much of a parent if I didn't let her give it a try.  She had to learn for herself whether it's something she likes or not.  I had to set my own biases aside and be a role model to my child, it's not always going to be about me.

So, she, like 30+ girls participated in their "very first" try-out...which by the way, I find a bit bogus...b/c competitive cheer is really a business...it's dollar signs, so even trying out will most likely guarantee the person a spot on some team level. (This is the first typical behavior of an atypical cheer mom).  Obviously, my child makes it into a team ($$$), yay for her...let's just leave it at that for now.  I was still hopeful that after the first year she would change her mind and try something else new (atypical behavior #2).

And so, the story goes on...she LOVED it and continues to LOVE IT!  Yay her....as for me...."Hell no, I'm not wearing a "cheer mom" shirt," I'll wear their colors, but there's no way I'm going to where a title "cheer mom" across my chest...she could still change her mind after the second season (#3).  BTW: I have two cheer shirts...and yes one that says, "cheer mom," after the second season, it was inevitable that I had to raise my white flag and just surrender and accept wearing the shirt...again, it's not always going to be about me...my kid needed to see that mom was making an effort because she loves the sport (#4).

There's so much that goes on in this sport that I have yet to find a moment where I can say, "wow, this is really awesome," and really, truly, sincerely, mean it from the bottom of my heart.  I swear, the look on my face is far from convincing to my two girlfriends, who are "normal" cheer mom...yes, I found that there are "types" of cheer moms...this will be covered later on, for sure.  Bless their hearts, they're very patient with me; one of them and her husband translate in English the cheer language for me...without them, I don't think I would have survived this long in competitive cheer-land.  Which brought me to blogging...I figured I can try to understand why I'm the atypical cheer mom, by writing/venting about it.  What really threw me over the edge to "write" was my experience tonight, while watching my kid practice, I hear the same crap from the typical "cheer moms" and I was alone...my girlfriend wasn't there physically with me.  Thank goodness for text/IM b/c I had an outlet, literally right at my finger tips.  I had to get over the delay when texting but I seriously could not get over the fact that no one was there to "see" my nonverbals and to reciprocate it back.  I had to keep my self faced forward...repeat to myself, this is for KK,  this is for KK...this will be over soon....then we all can go home....(#5).

So for now...this is the start to many more reflections...I have quite a few...