I have questions for the cheer parents in here. What are your thoughts and how are you managing financial and logistical elements of travel teams? There used to be only one travel option for end-of-season but now they are everywhere. I observe the social media pull to attend these events but because we produce events we are also hearing from parents who are struggling financially and logistically to attend these events year on year. Some parents are comfortable just drawing the line and saying, "We will only travel every 4 years," or "We will only travel when you achieve a certain skill level or hit a certain goal," because they want to regulate from within their family where money is spent and how it's used. Other parents feel a great deal of social pressure, either from their child and child's friends, or social media, or just because they want to give their child the opportunity to go outside of their own country. The coaches feel pressure to offer travel teams even if they don't want to, because athletes will often move to a different gym if they don't offer it. Event producers feel pressure to provide the bids because teams won't compete at their events if the bids are not provided.It's a tough cycle for everyone (except for the event providers who are producing the end-of-season events) My concern is for the long-term health of families and the sport in terms of What's required of the athletes and families to participate in these things. how are you managing this as a family and how do you feel about the opportunity versus the opportunity cost? Has it made you compete differently or less in your home country? I'd love to know your thoughts. There is no right or wrong answer here. I just would love to know your thoughts. Hit reply and let me know. 🤔

@Jared Kallen yes, good points- identify the issues early and get support, which is exactly why this community exists. We work with so many athletes, coaches, and parents at scale, the patterns definitely show up. It is very easy to lean into panic mode or create stories in our heads that maybe don't really exist in reality whenever we're uncertain or don't know. It's awesome to have a group like this to ask those exact kinds of questions when you do identify an issue and be able to get support in a safe place 🙂 We are allergic to cheer parent drama here so it’s always our way to assume the best in people and lean into that 💕

For the record, my kids did a variety of sport as young athletes but as they got older, my son specialized in baseball (it's his career now at 24 years old) and my daughter specialized in cheer through University of Georgia. Both sports were fun for our family, baseball was harder in bad weather extreme heat or cold, and cheerleading was harder for travel and expenses. Both were totally worth it because my kids are better humans because of their journey in sports. They come to Legacy events once in a while so definitely come say hello to them if you see them 🇬🇧