Hey, I’m Kristen!
I’ve been a cheer mom for over a decade. Almost 13 years, to be exact. That equals about one billion hours of driving to and from the gym and about five million minutes of being tortured with unnecessary dance parties to the Cupid Shuffle.
By the time my daughter Abby was seven years old, she had already tried t-ball, soccer, horseback riding, and swimming. Still, she begged me to take her to the local gymnastics place every time we drove by. I finally gave in and signed her up for a tumbling class once a week, just to see how it went.
I will never, ever forget the first time I saw her on the tumbling mat: I had just gotten off work, and my husband was out of town. I rushed to pick her up, exhausted and overwhelmed with everything I still needed to get done that day. I got Abby settled in the gym, and then I watched through the viewing area. What I saw next shocked and inspired me. My shy, quiet, reserved, introverted kid was all lit up and the most confident I had ever seen her. She didn’t care who was watching, what she was doing, or how well she did it. She was out on the mat doing her best forward rolls and cartwheels like she’d been doing it her whole life. I immediately called my husband and said, “This is it. This is what she’s supposed to be doing.”
It took a little while to get fully into competitive cheerleading, but looking back, that’s the moment we went all in.
Since then, Abby has snagged a top 3 Summit title, a high school cheer State Championship, competed at the Worlds level, and made the University of Colorado Cheer team, competing on both traditional and game day mat…and I was front and center (and often Team Mom) for all of it.
Cheer is its own world, and it can be tough for a mom to find her place in it – especially if you’re an introvert like me. I’ve felt lost, insecure, exhausted, and overwhelmed because of cheerleading. Sometimes I’ve had all of those feelings in one day. This sport comes with many highs and lows, and I want you to feel supported, encouraged, and informed from a mom’s perspective. We all deserve to feel like we’re not alone, right?
If you’re looking for tips, resources, support, and a little comic relief for cheer moms, then you’re in the right place.
Let’s get started, shall we?
