Good lord, Cheer-Leading is awful.

So what do I know of cheer-leading you might ask? Virtually nothing really except that it is pretty physically demanding, some call it a sport, and there are a surprisingly large amount of freakishly devoted parents who will stop at nothing to achieve some form of glory via their children competing in these events.

Guess what I did at work today?

No I did not cheer-lead, I sold unhealthy food to obsessed family members at some weekend long cheer-leading event, winners of which get to go to California for another one. It was pretty weird, my high school, MLC, did not have a cheer squad, mostly because we had no sports to speak of and most of us sucked at anything athletic anyway. Also organized events weren't really are thing... come to think of it unorganized events weren't really either, or attending classes, what did I even do at high school?

Anyway, it was an all ages event as as you may have gathered, I did not really care for it, competitive cheer-leading is really weird, with make up and hair choices that seem to have come straight out of sixties middle America without any thought for the progress of history, and applied evenly to all ages, which meant there were eight year olds, and younger with thickly slathered on mascara, lipstick, and eye liner, and it was really kind of upsetting to me, I guess because as Zena puts it, that make up is designed to make women look like they just finished having sex, and you know...

Dude

Anyway, I do have to admit most of the young ladies, of all ages, who I saw walking looked like they were having fun, but I have to wonder how many would choose to be there if their parents weren't their trainers or whatever, I had a conversation with one of the adults that went like this:
Her: Do you have any food that's... you know...
Me: Healthy? Not really (My stand sold milkshakes)
Her: Anything dairy or gluten free? My daught-athletes, don't do dairy or gluten,
Me: Sorry, another stand could give you a hot dog without a bun, that's about it.(I was not sorry)
Her: Wanders away disgruntled.

I know it doesn't appear so, but I am all in favor of healthy eating for our younger generation, but at some point you gotta accept that a kid who is still growing and active, and this hobby is hella physically demanding, can probably eat a hot dog once in a while without ruining their future careers.

My stand did pretty bad sales and my manager shut me down way early, which worked out okay as I was tired as hell, my new policy of no soda actually seemed to effect my energy levels somewhat poorly throughout the day, as I didn't have a constant infusion of sugar to keep me going, but that is a sidetrack, sorry, I guess the point is I don't know who thought it would be a good idea to try to sell milkshakes to neurotic controlling parents and their children in the middle of winter.

So yeah, one other thing that I noticed, and that really bothered me, was that there were a ton of girls walking around in knee and ankle braces, some had casts and I assume were there just to support their teams, but the braces and wrappings, pretty sure they were intended to... I dunno, what is it? Compete? Perform? I don't know the actual term for what they do with their routines and whatnot. I was asked a lot for bags of ice as well, apparently lots of mild aches and back spasms were happening but going to the actual first aid station might have meant the child wouldn't have been allowed to compete or whatever, so yeah.

The NFL has a reputation, and deservedly so, for being... dismissive of player health issues, particularly regarding concussion, but when a player complains of back spasms during practice the week before a game, it's a good bet they will be on the injury report and not play that week, similar policy applies to knee and ankle injuries, though they are a bit less hardcore about that. You don't fuck around with your spinal health, unless you are in the cheer-leading business it seems, then go nuts. Not a one of these girls was older than 18, and the injuries they had, and the stuff they are pushing their bodies to do, mean the risk of permanent physical damage, and not "I walk with a limp sometimes", rather "I can't run or my knee will fall off" is what we are talking here, or even "I can't walk without assistance, period."

I talked very negatively in this post about how I thought the parents were the drivers of this obsession and I didn't care for it, you might think this takes away agency for the athletes who are actually competing, many of whom probably actually want to do it, and it's true, I didn't give the girls enough credit, or responsibility for consequences of their own decisions, and they perhaps deserve more.
However.
They are minors, they might be willing to try to "walk off" a knee sprain or treat back spasms with an ice bag they got from a concessions stand, but their parents and coaches should know better, they are responsible for those girls health, and they don't get to make the decision to sacrifice that health for the purpose of a cheer-leading competition, they are failing at their primary responsibility as guardian when they don't treat mobility related injuries with the seriousness they deserve, and they should be ashamed.
They are living vicariously through their girls' competitions, and attempting in some way to capture some sort of glory  or accomplishment that either faded long ago, or never existed in the first place. It's appalling on pretty much any level you care to think about and they will only realize how stupid they are once someone who trusts them is permanently damaged because of it.