While thumbing through a catalog recently, I came across a selection of “CHEER MOM” t-shirts and bags and pondered, “Would I actually wear that?” Saying that you’re a cheer mom in the south can actually work for or against you. Amongst the cheerleading community, being a cheer mom represents dedication and support of your child. It means spending hours at cheer practices several days a week, participating in fundraisers on Saturday afternoons and of course financially supporting the endless supply list of corker bows and bloomers!
Being a cheer mom also has its negative stereotypes… no thanks to the Texas cheer mom who was jailed for attempting to hire a hit man to kill the mother of another cheerleader! Some women seem to lose focus of their children being part of a team and instead attempt to make their child, or in many cases, themselves, the star of the cheer program. At the local tanning salon, it is common practice for mothers of cheerleaders to sign their elementary school daughters up for spray tans or tanning packages before competitions. There is a nine year old girl in my community whose mother signed a wavier to allow her to tan against salon recommendations…and apparently this little girl is not the only one. At practices, I have seen five year old girls in sports bras and tiny cheer shorts which I feel is a bit much for girls in kindergarten. Last time I checked, sports bras were there to support things that girls in kindergarten and first grade do not need to concern themselves with… so it’s a bit odd to see a five year old and an 18 year old wearing the same thing.
The biggest surprise to me as been the hierarchy of cheer mom status within the cheer community. There is no doubt a competition amongst the mothers..whether it be about the skills of their child or the mother’s own appearance at the gym. It seems to be that there are three distinct groups of “cheer moms”:
1) The “team mom-fundraising-crying in the stands” parent – These moms are the ones who sit through every practice in the non-air conditioned gyms to see their child genuinely succeed in their sport (and yes it is one.) These are the moms that carry the cheer mom bags with the team sponsored water bottles in them and the moms that spend hours making bows for the team! In my opinion, probably the most neutral of all species of cheer moms.
2) The “former cheerleader-glamour queen” parent – Many moms of cheerleaders participated in the sport themselves so often times there is a sense of almost entitlement there…as if their daughter should be the flyer or front and center in the dance routine. There is definitely a group of moms who congregate together in the cheer gym who stereotypically would probably have been the prom queens and captains of their own high school squads. There are no shortages of heels, expensive jeans or lip glosses in this group. (I have to admit that I feel a bit of pressure to “clean up” before taking my daughter to practice.) I actually saw one of these mothers at the beach one afternoon in HIGH HEELS and a bikini asking her daughter to cartwheel in the sand.
3) The “high pressure-you will do a back tuck” parent – I am specifically thinking of the mother who I saw stand over her daughter yelling on a tumble mat after her daughter could not get her back tuck. After a two hour practice and a full day of school, I can’t imagine why a 6th grader would have difficulty failing throwing herself into a back flip after attempting it and exhausting herself 42 times earlier in the night! This is the mother who refuses to leave practice until the extra set of ab exercises is performed or whose child perfects the latest tumbling pass. This species of cheer mom tends to be the parent that most often fights with coaches over technique or who becomes the coach’s best friend in an attempt to push their child to the top of the cheer world. I can’t help but think that “crazy Texas cheer mom” fell into this category or if David Archuletta from American Idol was a cheerleader, his father would DEFINITELY be in this group!
It boils down to this…do I buy the cheer mom shirt or simply promote the cheer gym??? I’ll let the audience decide!
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