Strollerderby

With kids, I think it's always best to ask them exactly why they want to quit. "It's boring" or "I hate it" might be a good reason, depending on why - do they hate it because the coach is mean or makes it boring? Then maybe it's time for a switch to a different team instead of quitting the sport. Do they hate it because they're bad at it? Maybe, one year into it, it's better to let them do something else they're better at.

Either way, swimming is something that every kid should know how to do - but if your kid really hates competitive swimming, why make her keep doing it?

My daughter wanted to quit gymnastics at the Y because it was "too hard." She also gave the same reason later for wanting to quit karate. That said, she always had a good time in the classes, liked her instructors and got along with all the kids in her class. She just doesn't like to work hard physically. I made a deal with her that she needed to see the session through but she could skip 2 out of the 8 classes remaining, no questions asked. It gave her some power and both times she ended up seeing the session through without using her skips.

Why: that really is the big question.  

Sometimes I think that we put the cart before the horse when it comes to teaching kids organized sports or the details of a sport too young.  Say my kid used to like soccer, but after a few weeks of soccer camp lost interest.  It might be that she enjoys the thrill of running and kicking, but is too young to concentrate on all the rules and technicalities. Perhaps some pick-up soccer is in order until an interest in more structure emerges naturally.  

My young daughter wanted to quit ballet with just a month left in her class. I was torn between the make-her-suck-it-up camp and the why-pay-if-she-hates-it camp. But I finally wormed it out of her that she wanted to stop because one of the other little girls teased her for having short hair. We talked, I told her to ignore it, she didn't quit, and we ended the year on a happy note. I would probably let my child quit an activity if she had a very very good reason, but "I just don't feel like doing it anymore" wouldn't be good enough for me either.

I tried AYSO soccer when I was in fourth grade and by the end of the season I begged my mom to let me quit because I wasn't as good as all the other girls and it was embarrassing.  I loved to run, but I couldn't kick the ball or remember all the rules.  She told me that I couldn't quit.  She told me that practice would make me better and that I would like it if I just tried a little harder.  My dad told me that the more I ran in drills, the faster I would get.  He would practice "chip kicks" with me in the park.  It was really hard, but by seventh grade, I was the fastest MVP on my team  who took all the free kicks and I decided to go to the more expensive "club" team.  I eventually got tired of soccer by the end of high school when it became too competitive, but took these memories with me to college and finished with honors.  Whenever things got really hard and I wanted to quit, I just tried to remember how awful I felt that first season and how good it felt to improve myself.