How Do You Cope When She Wants to Quit Her Sport?
It’s likely to happen eventually. Your daughter picked a sport, was enjoying it, but now is ready to quit. Or maybe she never liked it from the very start.
Do you let her quit or push her to keep going?
This is a tough decision for any parent. You’ve probably spent money signing her up for the sport and on equipment, and it can be hard to see it wasted. There may also be teammates depending on her.
Talk to Her
The first thing to do if you daughter wants to quit a sport she’s been playing is find out why, especially if she was the one to suggest playing it in the first place.
Sometimes the reason will be very good. If the sport is getting in the way of doing well in school, you probably need to let her prioritize her education. Everyone needs a good education, no matter what else they want to do in life.
Sometimes it will be a problem you may be able to do something about. A personality conflict with a coach or another player, for example. If you can work out a solution to the problem she may be interested in continuing to play.
Other times there won’t be much of a reason at all. Maybe she lost interest. Maybe she’s tired of having to run from activity to activity. Maybe it’s not even something she can put into words; she just wants out.
Think About the Lesson She Will Learn
If she wants to quit because she doesn’t think she’s good enough at the sport, is giving up the lesson you want her to learn or would you rather she learn to push through and improve her skills through practice? Or is she being she having troubles where quitting is the better lesson? Think carefully about what you’ll teach her.
Will quitting teach her that it’s okay to let down teammates or will it teach her that sometimes it’s appropriate to do things just for your own benefit?
Consider also how she’s really feeling. Miserable is miserable, and sometimes there’s little to be done for it. Do you want to teach her to ignore her own feelings at all times for others or that sometimes you have to live your own life?
There’s no one right answer to whether or not you should let your daughter quit a sport she’s playing. It depends on a lot of factors. Just be sure that you don’t allow or deny the request without some thought. There are very important lessons to be learned from playing sports, and not all of them come on the playing field or during practice.
Tags: lessons learned, quitting
