I am always amazed at what our parents will do for us and how we turn around to do the same for our kids.

This post was inspired today by the group that is staying at my hotel this weekend; they started showing up in droves yesterday and have taken over quite a few rooms. They are the parents of a swim team for a college in town for a big meet; they have coolers and lots of ‘hooch’ and food, put mats outside their doors, tables with food in the hallways, posters with their son’s photos on the doors. They are wearing purple tu-tus, hats with bells, feather boas, it’s like Michael’s craft store exploded in the hotel!

Our parents are our biggest cheerleaders, it starts when we are little kids, encouraging us to walk, talk, laugh, clap, read, thrive. Then we’re kicking, running, jumping, hitting, spiking, tumbling, diving, reading, spelling, singing, dancing, acting, you name it, if there is a sport, there is a child participating and a parent supporting them.

Sometimes it may seem like some parents go overboard, we’ve all heard about the fights at little league games, hockey matches, you name it. On the other side, sometimes we might see the cheerleader moms as going overboard as well. There are the curls, personalized bows, hairspray, gift bags, I have a little experience with this as the mother of a competition cheerleader. I also had a football player/wrestler/soccer player.

There were the fundraisers we asked our parents to help us with and then we turn around and help our kids, asking our friends and neighbors to buy whatever we/they are selling.

There were meets and games and competitions to go to, sometimes all in the same day! Go to one event, after their go, we got in the car and went to the next event, back and forth all day, weehoo.

Parents are fantastic and until we are in their shoes supporting our kids, many of us don’t realize just how much our parents give, showing that support.

I’ve seen my sister and friends on the path for their kids, I know I’m a cheerleader for my nieces, my friends kids and when my grandkids start whatever it is, I’ll be on the sidelines cheering my heart out!

I was lucky enough to realize it and I know my sister was too. Our parents were at every one of our soccer games, my mom and I would go to my dad’s basketball games to watch him coach sometimes, that was fun. Since my dad was coaching his own soccer team, my mom was at our games.

And…there were games that our school played against his school, then he got to see us play and cheer us on. It was funny when GES or I would do something well, even scored a goal and he screamed and cheered and ran onto the field to hug us, guess how happy his team was!

As we get older, if we’re lucky, the support and cheerleading doesn’t stop with the school sporting events, school projects, theater productions, competitions, national competitions, you name it, our parents are there for us. And if we are as lucky to turn out to be half the people and parents they are, we pick up where they left off and do the same for our children.

I know that for me, my dad is still my biggest cheerleader and for that, I say thank you thank you thank you!