To Watch Practice or Not To Watch Practice?!?

In all three aspects of my gymnastics life, this has been a lingering question regarding practices.  As a gymnast, do I want my parent's to stay and watch?  As a coach/office manager, should a parent stay to watch their child?  As a parent, do I want to stay and watch practice?  The answer:  it depends.

Parent of Recreational Toddler/Preschool Child
This would be a resounding YES from all three perspectives.  Your child wants you to be there in 99% of all cases, as it provides them with a sense of security.  From a coaches standpoint, it is helpful to have a parent present in case the child needs to use the restroom or gets a "boo-boo".  And lastly, parents, in a class that is 30 to 45 minutes, you can't realistically get much done anyway, so, stay and watch your child, converse with other parents, and have a great time. 

Parent of Recreational School Age Child
This is a grey area - your child would probably enjoy you being at their practice to watch and support them, the coach wouldn't mind if you left because typically a school-aged child will not need help from their parent during class, and you, as the parent, may or may not want to stay for the class.  In this instance, I, personally, would stay to watch my child at least every other week and if the class length is less than one hour, I would stay every week. 

Parent of a Competitive Level Child
Once a child reaches competitive level gymnastics, you are talking about a more rigorous schedule with many more days and hours in the gym.  From the three perspectives, I would say that NO you should not stay for every minute of every practice.  When I was a competitive gymnast, having my parents at practice made me nervous - I felt that I needed to be moving at every minute and that they were seeing every mistake that I made.  As a coach, it wouldn't make a difference to me if parents were present or not.  Now that I am a parent of a competitive gymnast and my daughter is at the gym three nights per week for 3-3.5 hours per night, no I do not want or need to stay.  I would, however, encourage parents to come in a couple times per month to watch at either the beginning or ending of practice for 45 minutes to an hour.  Often times your child is going to come home and have only positive things to say about practice.  They are not going to be forthcoming with information about any negative behavior, skills that they are struggling with or scared of, and/or if your child is having any issues with the coaches.  These are things that will be apparent in the time that you are there watching your child at either the beginning or ending of practice. 

At the end of the day it is not about whether or not you watch every minute of every practice or not, it is about being an advocate for your child.  You have to be the one who is in their corner NO MATTER WHAT - loving them, supporting them, and being there for them.