Middle School Drama

Some dramas are all in my head. I've been worried for weeks about cheer. My daughter joined a new squad and I'm very worried that there will be "us" and "them" cliques (the original group, and the newbies). If they don't win after many winning seasons, what then? Several girls on C's old team were too-cool-for-school and refused to cheer at the games. They stood there in their too-tight uniforms and looked sexy, (not my favorite adjective for a then-12 year old!) and they couldn't be bothered to spell P-A-N-T-H-E-R-S. So there is reason to worry. C's new team has won and moved on to finals in Florida for several years in a row. It would be social suicide if THIS year they don't make it... and then my daughter and the other girls from the old team would be easy targets for the original team's disappointment.

But my daughter isn't worried, so far. In fact, she had a well-planned strategy the first few days. Stay with one or two closer friends and keep away from the cliques. She's keeping her nose to the ground and working on her moves, so she can progress - and she feels she is getting better.

Is she learning what not to do from watching me? This week my life has been all drama (as you might be able to tell from my now-deleted post). Somehow I find myself in the middle of an unstated attack, and spending a lot of time on out-of-state calls. My daughter reprimanded me several times for "gossiping". I don't think she quite got it, and I said so. "NO, Mom, she replied" and as she quoted back to me something that sounded to me very much like gossip.

So I guess I am worrying about cheer unnecessarily. Not only is my daughter much prettier than I ever was, she does better in school AND she is much more adept at social situations. I guess I have no excuse: I should relax and not worry about things that I can't do anything about. In my own life.... or in hers.

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