what on EARTH are you talking about? my children’s hospitalizations were certainly not free...

i’m sorry, ibuprofen is how much a packet?!

oh thanks! :) i’ve cheered and coached for a long ass time, and trying to be a cheerleader in a county that classified it as an activity along with Chess Club and the Band meant that we had a LOT of injuries, a lot of girls with no real idea of what we were doing, a lot of “instruction” by a bored music teacher who…

what about when they require tight spiral curls of everyone, even the girls with stick straight hair? Because that’s a Thing that is Done too. It’s a pain in the ASS to curl the girls hair on my daughter’s team who have straight hair, and the amount of heat applied and hair spray used is probably toxic, but literally…

so, if it’s okay for you to say that (and as a former cheerleader and dancer, ouch), it’s okay for me to say I’d be absolutely horrified and upset if my daughter decided to do a “real sport” and play soccer or softball... right? because I feel that way, but if I say it out loud, nearby parents act like they ought to…

it’s such a problem actually that it isn’t usually classified as a “sport” even tho where I live it finally is. For an “activity” as dangerous as cheerleading to not be a sport means we didn’t get access to gym time, we didn’t get mats, hell we didn’t even compete on mats in high school, our “coaches” were art…

where are you getting this from this article? I can guarantee you at other competitions they wanted high ponys with tight spiral curls.

maybe. if she were competing all day outside in Texas. But cheer competitions are not like that. At all. You show up at an appointed time and have like 25min to touch up your hair and makeup and make sure everyone is there. Then you have 3 min to stretch. 3 min to run the routine on a practice floor. Then you might…

it’s a performance. How is it different than a dance team requiring all 8 year olds to come to practice in a ballet pink leotard with light pink tights and capezio shoes and a high tight bun with NO SKIRTS? because my daughter’s dance school requires this. Competitive cheer is very similar to dance - head to toe there…

competitive cheer is a completely different sport than game cheering. don’t confuse the two. Competitive cheer is akin to dance team competitions. they cheer for themselves while doing a routine, not for a football team.

I don’t disagree except this mom should have been in NO WAY surprised that this was required of her kid. Her daughter has been cheering at a competitive level since age 4. Competitive cheer at a gym like hers is STRICT AS HELL. you sign waivers and pages of agreements that state you will do exactly as the coach says,…

i mean, but there is diversity, at least insofar as teams don’t all do the same thing. We let the girls vote on how they wanted their hair. When i coached african american girls they all went out and bought, at their own decision, the same hairpieces to put in. I was at a cheer competition yesterday. One team had…

it’s always been a thing. 20 years i’ve been involved in cheer in some way or another, and matching hair / bows / shoes / socks / jackets... it’s a thing. this is not new. in some leagues you do actually get judged on uniformity.

she’ll compete like, a few times a year. A few hair straightenings is not going to ruin her hair. I have very very similar hair and it’s a BITCH to straighten, but when I was in college, that’s what our coaches required. Stick straight high ponytails. Guess what, my hair is still flowing along just fine. Changing skin…

yeah no that’s crazy. We do rec league cheer. a helluva lot cheaper and much more fun. and the vast majority cheer in high school, in a small town where cheer is A Sport.

I.... don’t understand what the problem is? Hair in cheerleading is part of your uniform. Everyone wears a uniform and matching shoes and hairbows, it follows that you all have the same competition / game day hair styles. I’ve been involved in cheer for over 20 years- no one has ever questioned the mandated hairstyle.…

yes, it’s common, and it varies by company and industry. Most places require you to be working full time for a year before qualifying for maternity leave of any kind, including FMLA. My hospital (HOSPITAL!) requires a certain number of hours worked before you get health insurance, sick leave, vacation leave, and a…

so what you’re saying is you’d be in favor of scrapping private insurance completely and having the government take over providing payment to health care providers? Because that would solve literally everything you’re complaining about.

so all over my facebook feed today is jackass idiots saying stuff like “now we really know what america wants, sorry libtards move to canada” and aside from unfriending a lot of insane people, what do i say?! ANYthing??

whoa six degrees of kevin bacon!!! :) Family is in Anna, Ohio and surrounding areas. I think a few made it as far as Dayton but no further. My grandmother is the only one of 9 who left, and she LEFT. Married a whip-smart military engineer and got a job in downtown Washington DC. My mother went to Ohio to see her…