Everyone says their mom is the best but I beg to differ because no mom can compare to a dance mom.

She will always be your biggest fan.

Everyone's mom is their child’s biggest fan, but a dance mom is different. This parent/child bond is one that no one can break. Being a dancer, you get to spend countless hours in the car with your mom driving you home from competitions. She is the one who consoles you when you didn’t do as well as you hoped and she is the first one who runs up to you afterwards when you placed. She will always be the one to dry your tears whenever they fall.

She is always down to take you shopping for the last minute supplies before a performance.

She will always ask before the season starts if you have all the bobby pins, the correct color hair ties to match your hair, lipstick, lip liner, hairspray, comb, etc. that you will need and you swear you have it all from the previous year. So when you pack your bag a week before the performance and you don’t have what you need, you are hesitant to ask to run to the store. She simply rolls her eyes and smiles and says, “Let’s go.” As much as she wished you would have done this the first time she asked, she loves the car ride and talking to you about how excited you are.

She video tapes every performance so you can watch it over and over again taking notes on changes you can do to improve for the next time.

She can’t decide whether to focus on videotaping and getting the right angle or just watching the dance and hoping the video turns out. Either way, you bond over watching the dance. You ask what parts she liked, what parts she noticed were off, and what facials she liked the best. The more and more she watches the dance, the better her corrections are and you are forever thankful for them (most of the time).

She has gotten familiar to the glitter.

She knows when it's performance season and she cuts you slack on cleaning your bathroom because you both know the glitter will never be cleaned up. And when performance season is over, she misses finding glitter all over the house, she just won’t admit it.

She has learned when she can and cannot talk to you before and after a performance.

She has mastered reading your body language of when you walk off confident knowing you just killed it and when you walk off knowing you could have done a whole lot better. She waits for the right time to talk to you. No matter what the outcome, she always tells you that she loves you and is so proud of all the hard work you put into the performance.

Not only do you have one dance mom, you have a team full.

Everyone’s mom becomes yours as well. You know for a fact you will always have a solid support system to pick you up when you fall and someone to hold you high when you succeed. They love you just as much as they love their own daughter.

Dance is no longer just your life, it is hers.

She is just as excited to see you perform as you are to perform. When she sees you out on the dance floor doing what you love, there is no greater feeling.

To my dance mom (and my adoptive ones) thank you for always supporting me and my team. Without you, I would not be the dancer nor the person I am today.