Cheerleaders, bows and lots of insanity

I have been wanting to write a blog for quite a while now, but could never decide where to start! I am blessed with many great things in my cheer life, and choosing just one part of it to write about was hard. So, here it is, be warned I am sure I will digress into the many facets of my cheer insanity throughout it, and I’m positive that you will all find me crazy, obsessed with bows, and the perfect pony, but I’m also hoping that there will be some cheer parents out there that can laugh at my exploits, worries of team placements, stresses of if to use 400 or 450 diamantes on a new bow design and 3am drives back from the other side of the country all to watch 2:30 of my daughter being the happiest person on the planet.

Where it all began

So, how did it all start? At 4 my daughter decided she was desperate to start cheer. She’d already tried out a few disciplines of dance, and although she loved the classes, seemed to be looking for something more. As soon as she saw the glamour, glitter, and fast pace of cheer on a tv programme, that was it she was hooked. So I called the local cheerleading school and booked her into a class.

Life as I knew it rapidly changed over the next few months, she couldn’t get enough of her new adventure. Each night I would have to play the song that she had been learning her pom dance to, and she would dance around the living room, with her pound shop pom poms banging out high v’s and broken t’s like there was no tomorrow. I cheered her on, helped her where I could, told her she was fab, all the usual things that any parent would do.

She was lucky, being naturally flexible and able to pick up routines quickly helped her in her in her quest to become a competitive cheerleader. The rest was achieved with hard work, some disappointments along the way, and sheer determination. As anyone reading this with a child who competes in cheerleading will know, this sport is demanding on both the body and the soul. There’s immense challenges in cheerleading and it’s a constant uphill battle of skill learning, level climbing and finding the mental strength to push on when you think that there is nothing left to give.

My admiration for the 12 year old I have the privilege of calling my eldest daughter is immeasurable. I have seen her fall, figuratively and physically more times than I can remember, but I have seen her rise up each time and amaze me with her sheer commitment to her sport.

Fast forward 8 years and here I am in the middle of a hectic schedule of training, tumble classes, extra rehearsals, competitions, hotel rooms, hairspray, what feels like 500 costume changes and BOWS! Oh and I also decided to open a cheer bow company too!