- Jul 22, 2010
- 4,442
- 6,774
Someone "liked" a really old post of mine and it prompted me to go back and read the thread. As so many of the best CB threads do, it touched on a bunch of different topics, one of them being quitting. In it, dunno stated something along the lines of gymnasts quitting 3476234 times during their careers, and that parents shouldn't take it too seriously and our children will thank us later for not letting them quit,
We just went through our first quitting "scare." DD (13-year-old level 8) sent me an email from school saying that she wanted to quit and listing the reasons (wants to spend more time outside, tired of being sore, wants to play volleyball, wants to spend more time with her pets, etc.). Well, I thought that was it. We were done. But she kept going to practice, had a meeting with her coaches, and eventually told me I could go ahead and pay her fees for floor music/choreography/leo/warm ups because she was committing to another year.
I have to say I was pretty floored and more than a little upset that she was quitting, though I tried very hard not to let it show. It was really hard to know what was the right thing to do. I did fear, as dunno suggested, that she would regret it if she quit. But I also didn't want her to stay in the sport just because it was what I wanted her to do. She spends way too much time in the gym to be there for any other reason than her loving it.
So how DO you (or how did your daughter or son) know that it is time to quit?
Oh, and as an aside... I did suggest Xcel, and even though the other girls in Xcel are great and the coach is amazing, DD had (and has) zero interest. I don't understand the "all or nothing" mentality. Why have to decide between doing 20 hours a week and zero hours a week when there's a perfectly good 10 hours a week option? I think there is just a stigma associated with Xcel that I just don't understand.
We just went through our first quitting "scare." DD (13-year-old level 8) sent me an email from school saying that she wanted to quit and listing the reasons (wants to spend more time outside, tired of being sore, wants to play volleyball, wants to spend more time with her pets, etc.). Well, I thought that was it. We were done. But she kept going to practice, had a meeting with her coaches, and eventually told me I could go ahead and pay her fees for floor music/choreography/leo/warm ups because she was committing to another year.
I have to say I was pretty floored and more than a little upset that she was quitting, though I tried very hard not to let it show. It was really hard to know what was the right thing to do. I did fear, as dunno suggested, that she would regret it if she quit. But I also didn't want her to stay in the sport just because it was what I wanted her to do. She spends way too much time in the gym to be there for any other reason than her loving it.
So how DO you (or how did your daughter or son) know that it is time to quit?
Oh, and as an aside... I did suggest Xcel, and even though the other girls in Xcel are great and the coach is amazing, DD had (and has) zero interest. I don't understand the "all or nothing" mentality. Why have to decide between doing 20 hours a week and zero hours a week when there's a perfectly good 10 hours a week option? I think there is just a stigma associated with Xcel that I just don't understand.