Local Team from DuPage Cheer and Power Tumbling Place at Nationals

It’s the height of summer time now and if you are a parent with children like me, your schedule revolves around your kids’ activities.  Sometimes, it’s hard to strike a work place-family balance we all strive to reach. 

However, when you have an uplifting experience it makes all the difference.  Case in point: my daughter Darby has been involved in competitive tumbling for the year.  Her competitions have taken us all over Illinois to watch her match her tumbling skills against other kids her age.

Recently, she had a big breakthrough at the USTA National Championships in Madison, Wisconsin.  Darby’s team included 12 athletes who competed against 123 other teams from as far as Florida, where her team took home two National Championships, two National Runners Up, a 4th place tumbler, a fifth place tumbler as well as 10th, 11th, 12th and 14th place tumblers.  Her team also placed third as a team with their first ever trampoline team. 

This was the DuPage Cheer and Power Tumbling’s teams first year competing together and each athlete could only advance to Nationals by finishing in the top 10 during state competition.

Darby finished 14th out of 26th in her competition, which was a significant improvement for her against much tougher competition.  To see her face after she completed her exercise made the travel and the time away from the office well worth it.

Much is written these days about the over scheduled child and how parents seem to cater to the every whim of their child’s desires.  But those people often miss the larger point:  that spending quality time with your child in a meaningful activity creates a bond that both child and parent will cherish forever. 

What is your favorite memory of your child’s activities?