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What if she wants to be a cheerleader?

As I’ve written, I enjoy the differences between my daughters and me. I’m even learning to enjoy outspokenness, extraversion and being a sports nut, all foreign to my own experience and leanings.

But we probably all have some biases, don’t we? I know I really, really hope my kids will attend a four-year liberal-arts college like my husband and I did. I really don’t care what they do after that. (Actually, in this economy, I’m encouraging my oldest to learn plumbing and drywall. )

But there is something else, something which seems to symbolize everything that I was not, every hurt I received in junior high and high school, everything my friends and I disdained as shallow.

And I think it may be in my family’s future.

You see, the thought has now occurred to me: what if (gasp!) my daughter wants to be a….cheerleader?!?

At my high school, several of the cheerleaders were actually honors students, of diverse ethnic backgrounds, and relatively nice, not the haughty blonde bimbos sometimes portrayed in the media. Still, they were the “in” group and everyone knew it. My friends and I felt superior to that sort of shallowness. I don’t get the whole cheerleading mystique. I definitely do not understand the parents in Michelle’s blog about a ban on cheerleaders’ miniskirts in class.

Can I get over my bias? I admit, cheerleading is good exercise. It would make good use of my daughter’s terrific sense of rhythm, her love of music, her enthusiasm, her leadership skills.

I am almost relieved, though, to find some logical reasons for opposing her participation: cheerleading, believe it or not, is considered one of America’s most dangerous sports.

Adoptive parents are called to stretch themselves to deal with temperaments that may come from birthfamily. (Of course, adopted children often share interests and personalities with their adoptive parents, and non-adoptive families also experience a diversity of temperaments.)

How much of a stretch can our psyches take before we get that, “I can’t believe this/my brain is going to explode” type of feeling?

We’ll see.

Please see these related blogs:

How Much is Genes; How Much is Environment?

Potentially Dangerous Fitness Choices

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About Pam Connell

Pam Connell is a mother of three by both birth and adoption. She has worked in education, child care, social services, ministry and journalism. She resides near Seattle with her husband Charles and their three children. Pam is currently primarily a Stay-at-Home-Mom to Patrick, age 8, who was born to her; Meg, age 6, and Regina, age 3, who are biological half-sisters adopted from Korea. She also teaches preschoolers twice a week and does some writing. Her activities include volunteer work at school, church, Cub Scouts and a local Birth to Three Early Intervention Program. Her hobbies include reading, writing, travel, camping, walking in the woods, swimming and scrapbooking. Pam is a graduate of Seattle University and Gonzaga University. Her fields of study included journalism, religious education/pastoral ministry, political science and management. She served as a writer and editor of the college weekly newspaper and has been Program Coordinator of a Family Resource Center and Family Literacy Program, Volunteer Coordinator at a church, Religion Teacher, Preschool Teacher, Youth Ministry Coordinator, Camp Counselor and Nanny. Pam is an avid reader and continuing student in the areas of education, child development, adoption and public policy. She is eager to share her experiences as a mother by birth and by international adoption, as a mother of three kids of different learning styles and personalities, as a mother of kids of different races, and most of all as a mom of three wonderful kids!