My daughter in on a competitive dance team this is their first year competing and they did really well. She struggles in class but when it is show time she pulls it off. There is one parent that I know of that thinks the team would be better off without her and if one of the girls would quit hanging around her she would quit. I know the studio owner is not going to do anything cause she can not afford to loose anymore students and she is too nice. The owner and I are good friends but I don't think it will make a difference. We just made a new contract that said all through it gossip was not allowed and you could not talk about other team members. How do I make her inforce this?

Its sad that it goes on but I know things have got so competitive that some parents take it all to far.

Could she not give warnings to these parents (written if she prefers) and then if it still carries on they are kicked off the team, its sad really that it comes to this, at the end of the day its all about the kids, everyone should be there too support each others kids, we have teams and kids of different abilities but it doesnt matter because at the end of the day as long as those children are enjoying what they are doing thats whats important. I know you said she cant afford to lose people but surely its better off without people like that.

Zoe
x

I feel the same way. A buch of them sit out in the lobby and just trash the whole studio (I know this cause I work in the office) and the SO does nothing about it and she is loosing more students than she knows because other parents don't want to sit in there and listen to that.

She really needs to look at who representing her team best and with parents doing that it doesnt sound like they are doing what they should be, she needs to also think about those she is losing and find out from them why they left or have they told her they have had enough of people gossiping, I know sometimes it can just get to much. Its hard but its her school and she needs to knock it on the head before it gets totally out of hand especially if people are leaving over the same group. x

Stage mothers as well as athletes' fathers (and this isn't really limited by gender) can be a major pain. Sometimes it takes collective action to shut the bad ones up. When my kids were playing sports we had such an incident. This parent bad mouthed coaches, players, referees. The rest of us hatched a plot. The next time he did this we all jumped on his case and told him in no uncertain terms that he was out of line. He never volunteered to do any of the work himself, really didn't know all that much about the game and generally shamed him into silence. Once he new he had no supporters among the rest of us, he became very silent. You fight fire with fire in this case.

Jon

Thank you for that I already have one parent aware of the situation and she is going to be listening for comments and she is going to help me deal with the situation. Positive encouragement is always a good thing. Thanks again.

Some instructors/directors like to use booster clubs to keep parents in check. They have to be elected to the positions. Not sure if you studio is large enough for something like that. It's something to think about. Might be a better way to go than living with a momma hit squad.