I TOTALLY agree with you. Although I do not teach a cheerleadin team. I own a dance studio with my best friend, and we teach all the classes, plus have to run a business...

My thoughts.... Although I am young (23) and have been teaching for a while, I have learned a lot and have a lot of thoughts.

1. Class time starts at 5:00 not 5:15 or 5:03, but 5:00 on the dot!!!! How hard is it to get a child to something that YOU (parent) pay for? If I had to pay for something I would sure as hell make sure my child was there on time and ready to go.

2. I'm sorry did you say you want your child to compete but you dont want them to come to pracitce more then 1 night a week for more then an hour? What part of COMPETITION dont you understand?? How can your child compete and stand a chance against girls/boys that practice 3 or more nights a week for 2 or more hours a night???? Yet you can devote them to softball/soccer all summer and still wonder why they are getting no where with there dancing?? I cant possible teach them anything worth while in an hour once a week. HELLO school sports practice more then that!!!! Look around!

3. Sometimes I just dont feel like teaching. Its called FUN DAY! Get a grip! You (parent) have a cow if we have a fun day, but you dont want them to come more then once a week. Its not like fun day doesnt consit of dancing and learning skills. Its just a different approach to it. A lazy way shall I say.

4. (this is sorta a vent on my partner) How can the studio make money and gain more students if you are not willing to help?? All it takes is to answer the phone, reply to messages, or even put forth a little more effort when it comes to keeping the studio clean and neat for everyone. I am not your mother. Put forth the effort and you will see that one day you wont have to work 2 jobs.
Explantion: her thought is that the studio will never make enough money for both of us to only work 1 job and depend on the studio as our main source of income. So therefore she puts no effort into advertising or answering messages or communicating with the parents to keep them informed. Yet she wonders why the studio is not taking off like she hoped. EFFORT!!!

5. Class fess are not that costly! Call around to other studios and see what they offer. I only get paid $100/month no matter how much you (parent) pay us for class fess. We need to much stuff to help your child succedd and I am willing to fork over part of my pay for your child to have these tools. So dont B**CH about class fees being to HIGH!!

I could go on and on.. but I have vented enough. Makes me feel a little better. I just wish the parents understood more of what we go through.

Thanks a million for this thread!!

Sarah