WordPress always wants me to name my posts first. It’s very rare that I know what I’m gonna talk about first…usually I just ramble until I find a theme and THEN I go back and name or rename it.
Do you wanna know what’s worse than cheer moms? Cheer dads. UGH. Seriously. I’ll start by saying that my sweet husband is NOT a cheer dad. He enjoys going to the football games, but I know better than to ask him to attend a competition. He will drive the carpool if I need some help, but instead of going inside the building, he stays in the car and naps. He helps pay cheer bills…but he ain’t any happier about it than I am.
Last year, there was a guy sitting innocently enough in the back of the tumbling practice observation room. One of the moms leaned over and whispered, “don’t say ANYTHING MEAN about ANYONE while that guy is here…he will tell all the other parents and the coach.” Aside from being surprised at the totally unnecessary warning (as I hadn’t met and/or spoken to anyone about anything at all yet), I was also in wonderment that this seemingly mild-mannered looking man was so notorious that he required a warning. After a year and a half of sitting through various practices and speaking to him several times, I still wonder about it, but don’t get it.
Enter this year’s new dad. You know that guy who knows everything about everything? And no matter what anybody else says, there is something that will need to be corrected in their statement and by golly he’s gonna be the one to do the correcting? Yeah. This is that guy. He knows everything about cheer, football, tumbling, raising children, animals, reptiles, illness, wellness, trucks, babies, boyfriends, breakfast, geography, gas prices, fundraising, and clothing. At least this is a brief list of things I have personally heard his self-proclaimed expertise on. Don’t believe me? Just ask him. He has high expectations for his child and the team. Which is fine. But I really wish I didn’t have to listen to them every week. I think I’m gonna have to add headphones to the book and/or iPhone game that I bring to keep myself too busy to talk. Because even when I am not discussing things with Super Cheer Dad, his convos with others are at a volume that seeps into my preoccupied consciousness.
When he starts in on his superior knowledge on periods and labor pains, it’s on.
Current mood: holly jolly
3/8/18 – this is the only post that I am adding an addendum to. As I mention, at this point in the cheer mom game, I rarely spoke to anybody at all. And we’re talking over a year in. I didn’t know that I would later meet some of my best friends while sitting in the gym waiting room watching our kids practice. Once I stepped out from behind my anti-social walls, I met the second cheer dad and his sweet wife. He does, indeed, know a little bit about a wide, wide variety of topics. He can be loud (as can I). And he has one of the biggest hearts I’ve ever known. He supported the team completely, volunteering even after his daughter graduated and absolutely has forgotten more about cheer than I’ve ever learned. While I don’t really give a rip if anybody is offended by anything else I wrote almost a decade ago, I do want anybody who reads this to know that (despite my grumpy, introverted initial impression) he is an amazing man and friend.
Adventures In MandyLand 