Photo: Tim Flores Photography & USASF
Cheer moms and dads play an important role in their child’s athletic career. Involved, supportive and helpful parents can positively impact their child’s experience. On the other hand, parents who are too involved or unsupportive can create a ton of issues.
The role of a cheer parent is to help their children have fun, encourage them to learn new things, teach them sportsmanship and act as a pillar of support. Sometimes, parents can try to be too good at these things and end up being a source of stress or embarrassment for their athlete.
Below, I’ve written a summary of things you SHOULD and SHOULD NOT do as a parent of a cheerleader!
Things you should do:
- Be Supportive – Help your athlete by acting not only as a financial support, but also being there for them emotionally. Tell them how proud you are of their efforts (not their results) and reassure them that you support them in every way. Also, assist them with planning and preparing for competitions, practices, games, etc. You don’t need to watch every single performance or attend every practice, but make time to go whenever you can.
- Be Encouraging – Encourage your child to be confident, hard-working and sacrificing for the things they want to achieve. Remind them that they have it in them to reach all their goals.
- Provide Helpful Feedback – Focus on giving positive feedback on their efforts and achievements. Help them connect the dots between goal setting, training, hard work, teamwork, a positive mindset and the things they achieve. It also is beneficial if you help them learn from their failures, mishaps, errors and disappointments.
- Stay Informed – Get familiar with the rules of cheerleading, your child’s gym, the cheer levels, skills and any other basics. This will allow you to have more in-depth conversations with your athlete about their sport and understand them better.
- Be a Role Model – Develop healthy habits in your own life to set a good example for your child. Eating well and staying active will send the message to them that it’s important to take care of yourself. In addition, being respectful and having sportsmanlike conduct with other teams/gyms will show your athlete how they should be acting in various situations.
- Trust the Coach – As a parent, you don’t know everything (even though you might think you do sometimes!). Allow the cheer coaches to do their job in teaching your child everything they know about cheerleading. They are a coach for a reason.
Things you should NOT do:
- Get Too Involved – Being over-involved will negatively impact your athlete in a lot of ways, especially if you’re trying to live through your child. It will make them feel like they have less control over their athletic career and won’t allow them to develop independence through sport. You should remain on the sidelines/in the background, being a source of strength and support.
- Emphasize Winning – Your main focus should be on making sure they’re having fun, not pressuring them to be #1 all the time. Too much pressure can lead to them hating cheer and performing worse.
- Act as the Coach – Unless you’re a cheer or gymnastics coach yourself, your kid’s cheer coach will know more than you about the sport! Trying to coach your kid in any way can be very dangerous. You may be giving them conflicting messages if you’re telling them one thing and their coach says another. You should also refrain from spotting your athlete, no matter how much they want you too! There’s a correct technique for spotting that ensures safety, so if you don’t know it, you’re putting your child at a huge risk for physical injury.
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