My Biggest Cheerleader

There's been a lot of cheering going on around here this summer!  I'm just not sure who the bigger cheerleader actually is.  Several new friends told us about this camp that was not to be missed.  I have to admit that I'm not really a "camp mom".  You know the type - they start telling you right after Christmas break in January about all of the camps they have their dear daughter or son enrolled in for the summer so that their child will be insured to have the BEST summer ever.  They will emerge at the end of it all as the BEST tennis player, cook, mathematician, swimmer, scientist, dancer, etc. and they think your child should enroll too so that her dear daughter or son will actually have some fun.  I know. I know - that description sounds a bit snarky and mean but you and I both know that all those children emerge as at the end of the summer is tired.  I know this because I have fallen into the trap.  I have been busily putting away my Christmas decorations when the phone starts ringing with one mom after another telling me about all of the activities she has enrolled her child for this summer.  Before the last box of decorations was hauled up to the attic, I too was on the phone enrolling my daughter for an amazing array of summer activities sure to enlighten her and enhance her childhood beyond anything I could have ever imagined at her age.  I mean, come on, if all of the other moms were doing it for their children I should be doing it for mine too.  Obviously they knew what's up and clearly I did not.  Well..... let me tell you how that turned out.   The first week or so were fine and full of fun but then the complaints started - I'm tired, I don't want to get up, there's no time to go swimming, I want to get together with my friends, I don't want to go to camp - and that was just what I was saying - my daughter was too tired and overwhelmed to say anything!  So we did that one summer, did a scaled down version of the same thing the next year, boycotted camps all together the next and now hopefully have settled into a happy medium.  That scheduled summer may work for some but it just didn't work for us.  So, back to my original thought.... several friends were telling me about this amazing cheer camp and even though on the outside I was smiling and nodding, on the inside I was thinking here we go again.  To be honest, months went by and I didn't sign her up for the camp but then more and more people told me about it and some of them seemed like people who know how to actually enjoy summer so I thought I'd check it out.  I'm so glad I did.  I think it was the best week she had all summer.  She knew lots of girls there and met many new ones too.  It's run by the high school cheerleaders and at eight years old, that may have been the coolest thing about it.  As a mom. I appreciated the way they took each girl under their wing and made each one of them feel special.  It didn't matter if you could do a cartwheel or flip, if you were a flyer or a base, everyone had something special to contribute and they found out just what that was.  By the end of the week each group had put together a routine to perform for the parents (because of course you just HAVE to parade the parents in to see what their money is buying - haha).  It was the cutest thing - I enjoyed it, the girls enjoyed it - win, win.  Now I have not deluded myself into thinking that my daughter is going to be a cheerleader or that she even wants to be one but she did have fun every day of camp and has been cheering and dancing ever since.  She cheers for my husband and I, for her sister, for anyone who will sit still long enough to watch her and she cheers even when no one is watching.  She has taught her one year old sister to cheer and to say a new word - she goes around the house with her arms pumping the air yelling goooo.  I'm sure when the little one gets old enough we'll be enrolling her and I know we'll be re-enrolling my older daughter for next year - probably right after I haul the Christmas decorations down to the basement.