Youth "Competitive Cheerleading" - Help me understand

We had kinda the same experience, my 5 year old came to us and wanted to do cheerleading with her friends.  My wife and I went down to watch one of their practices, and we were shocked!!!!

Now I'm no prude...but the cheers/dances they were teaching these 5,6 and 7 year old girls were wicked inappropriate, in my opininion.  WAYYYYYYY TOOOOOOO much butt and hip shaking in an outwardly suggestive manner.  All the other "cheer parents" seemed to think it was cute that their little girls were out there shaking their hips and butts like they were 18.   My wife and I were appauled.  Maybe I'm overly sensitive to the sexualization of children becuase of my job, but both my wife and I decided "NO way, not for our daughter"

We told her nope we didn't want her to do cheerleading.   She was P.O'ed to say the least, but I don't know...it was creepy and just wrong what they were having these little girls do as "cheers"

My daughter has a friend who is wayyyy into this...... 3-4x practices and almost weekly weekend trips.  I saw a video of her competition once... WAY TOO MUCH HIP/BUTT SHAKING.  I am so glad that Alyssa has zero interest in cheerleading. 

I asked the mother about it - her response was "This is Texas, what do you expect?"  Not sure what to think of that response....

There was an article in TIME magazine about two years ago about cheerleading...maybe you can find it. It might give you some insight to the sport.

What does the money go toward? Are there fundraising opportunities?

The secretary in our office has a daughter who is into cheerleading.  I don't know much about the details, cost, time, etc. except for what I hear her constantly griping about.  She is forever doing fund raising by selling cookies, candy, and other assorted "junk", she brings her daughter to practice anywhere from 3-5 days per week.  The team qualified for some sort of cheerleading championships in Florida, so of course they had to go which meant more money, more fund raising, more griping.  I think the girls grades have suffered from all the work involved in doing this.

I am not a big proponent of team sports and activities.  Neither of my sons ever felt the need to play team sports like Little League baseball or Pop Warner football.  My youngest son tried street hockey for two seasons and ended up dropping out when he didn't like all the heavy structure and discipline, like the coach who seemed like a frustrated drill sargent.  There's no need of that when kids are 8 years old.

Last night I watched my nephews perform for their tae kwon do belt tests. I commented to my sister that TKD seemed to be a very good sport for boys and girls in that it stresses discipline and instills self-confidence in the kids. The mix was maybe 60/40 boys/girls. The girls kicked butt - out of 4 testing for their purple belts, 3 were girls (LITTLE girls). The only one testing for the black belt was a young teen girl (looked pre-teen).

They tumble in TKD, too. And they have snazzy, non-sexualized uniforms and gear. Maybe you could try to steer your daughter in that direction or something similar?

My father had 5 daughters. He told us that he and my mom would support us in any sport we wanted, but we would not be allowed to become cheer-ers for someone else performing a sport.

I understand that you want your daughter to have self-confidence, but do you want the source to be from her appearance and hip shaking ability? Seems cheerleading places great emphasis on appearance (a sexualized appearance at that) - like a modern day beauty pageant. No disrespect to our fine former cheerleaders on here.

$3000???  Does this include all of the "extras" and road trips or does it start at $3000 and quickly climb to $5000-6000?  As other's have said, is this really the culture that you want for your daughter?  (Talk to a few families whose daughters are doing this, and talk to a family or two whose daughter has done this for 3 or more years.  Are they the role models you want for your daughter?) 

I feel bad (a little) telling our scouting parents that a year in scouting costs about $400.  The good news (for us) is that the scouts have several opportunities to raise money for their scout accounts to help defray these costs. 

I'd spend $3000 elsewhere, but the decision is really up to you. 

 I have watched the cheer squad for our local high school work out while my girls were working out in their gymnastics class. What I saw for two hours was a group of young ladies that were working their butts off. They were in constant motion the whole time I was there and were still working when we left. Their coaches were demanding perfection and taking time to pull anyone aside to work one on one when they didn't do it right. It appeared to be a highly competitive and demanding sport, both physically and mentally. I can see the benefit and downside to having a child on the team.

 Both of my daughters have been in gymnastics and competed locally on the teams. As they were getting older ( 8 and 6) the time and money to compete went up, way up. we took them off the teams and placed them in a once a week class. The biggest factor for us was the time involved. They were practicing 3-4 times a week and practices were 2 to 3 hours a session. weekend rolls around and there was usually a meet on Saturday. We felt our girls were not getting enough "kid time" to just play and enjoy their friends in the neighborhood. If you wish to enroll your children in one of these programs be ready for a big time and money commitment. Three grand is upfront, but get ready to pay for tons of extra thing and it will likely double when you factor in gas and personal coaching sessions.

 The upside is it will make your kids physically tough and help them develop a real good work ethic when it comes to physical efforts.  

No way, I am spending 3k on a 7 year old for any type of sports and likely not anything else either.

Especially when this is something that will likely fade away at some point.  Think about what other things you spend 3k on in a year. 

With that said, I spend about $1200 a year on piano lessons for my 7 year old son.  Two points:  One, that is just about a 1/3rd of the 3k in comparison, 2nd once he learns piano, he can enjoy it till the day he dies.

One question I have is how much do you spend on Tri'ing?  Is your problem ithat this is cheerleading and not some other sport or the $$ to have your daughter have a hobby?  I personally think $3K for a 7yr old hobby is expensive but I spend money on myself so if my son should get on some form of competative team that requires $$ I will find a way to make it work, but hopefully this is not until 12 or 13.  Plus as others have said is this the total $$ or the initial outlay.  Remember if they travel and you go with them you need hotels and food, etc. 

Thanks for all the input folks; it is appreciated.  The news today is....

..she made the team, so I am on the hook for the cash. 

I did find out that the $3k is "all inclusive" for the year.  It pays for tumbling class once a week (1.5 hours) , squad practices/lessons twice a week (3 hours total), uniforms including shoes, team warm-ups, all competition entry fees for the year, hotel for the competition in San Antonio,  a two day retreat, the year-end banquet, and health insurance for any accidents or injuries that occur while at the gym or any competition.  There is no additional fundraising so we won't have to bother people for sponsorships or sell anything. 

All in all, it is still a lot of cash, but it seems like we do get a lot as part of the deal, and she is so excited that she can't stop talking about it; this will likely make it all worthwhile...we'll see.

Scone & Spokes,

I think you are confused.  This is NOT cheering for sports teams, and is NOT a "sexual incentive for the boys to win."  They ar enowhere near football games, basketball games, etc.  They are either in a cheer gym working out and taking tumbling lessons, or at a cheerleading competition competing against other girls...like a gymnastics meet.  In fact, from what we've been told, most of these girls do not cheer at school because they don't like the exact stereotypes that you guys are displaying.  They stick to competitve cheer and stay away from cheering for sports.

yeah, X2.

I don't get what they are cheering for, in that case.

Do high schools have "cheering" squads that don't actually cheer at the games?  There is one at the game, and one in competitions? 

That's just it...this is not a school activity or affiliated with school at all.  It is a private gym.  It is exactly what you suggested, Lara; gymnastics, dance, & cheer.  From what I understand, most of the cheer gyms have dance teams as well, and the way we found out about the tryouts was because my daughter was taking gymnastics lessons at this same gym (which also offers competitive dance teams). 

As far as whether it is a sport, I can't answer that for certain, but from what I understand, the ONLY way to make one of the top tier teams (which my daughter obviously did not since she is just a beginner) is to have a very solid gymnastics background; you can't even qualify for the top level cheer teams wihtout significant gymnastics ability.

To say "Why do this if you aren't going to cheer for your school" is like saying "Why play golf on the weekends if you aren't going to try out for the school golf team?" or "Why take gymnastics if you aren't going to try out for the high school gymnastics team." 

Competitive cheerleading and school cheerleading  are two completely different activities; ar at least that is how it has been expalined to me.

No. High school cheer squads do cheer at games. That is their sole purpose. But you won't find any (or at least very very few) high school squads at competitive events.

Competitive cheerleading is very different. Just like you have gymnastics competitions, competitive cheerleading competitions are the same thing only combine it with dance and make a team sport out of it.

Edit - Yes OldAg, they are as different as night and day.