Letting Kids Quit Sports

[LinvilleGorge]

On 8/21/2019 at 7:31 AM, Khyber53 said:

Also, make sure you aren't making your kid play a sport because you want him/her to. 

The over-emphasis on sports for our kids probably isn't very healthy over the long term.

This for sure.

My sister in law's husband is living vicariously through their son. Everything comes secondary to his baseball. He's a part of all kinds of travelling teams and the dad coaches all of them. They have no life outside of this kid's baseball. And I'm not talking about a 14 or 15 year old who looks to be an elite college prospect with the ability to get a full ride and maybe even have a shot at the pros. I'm talking about a five year old kid who's the product of two people without an athletic bone in their bodies. This kid has a better chance of being struck by lightning while holding a winning jackpot lottery ticket in his hand than playing college baseball.

[Khyber53]

2 hours ago, LinvilleGorge said:

This for sure.

My sister in law's husband is living vicariously through their son. Everything comes secondary to his baseball. He's a part of all kinds of travelling teams and the dad coaches all of them. They have no life outside of this kid's baseball. And I'm not talking about a 14 or 15 year old who looks to be an elite college prospect with the ability to get a full ride and maybe even have a shot at the pros. I'm talking about a five year old kid who's the product of two people without an athletic bone in their bodies. This kid has a better chance of being struck by lightning while holding a winning jackpot lottery ticket in his hand than playing college baseball.

Yep, seen it many times. 

[lightsout]

Glad that people here seem to get it. No easy quitting, but no senseless pushing of activities the kids hate either. I hated going to track practice sophomore year of high school and was fairly bad at shotput and the 200m sprint, but those were the events I was told to do and I did them for an entire season simply because I started it so I felt personally obligated. I think that came from EVERY season being told by my mom growing up playing baseball "if I sign you up, you're playing the whole season". Granted, I loved baseball growing up so that wasn't an issue, but the concept being instilled I think led me to being who I am. I'm sure if I absolutely hated a team or something and didn't want to play at all, she wouldn't have made me stay in it.

My future kids will likely be raised similarly in that respect. Find their interests, which means trying things and giving them honest tries.

[bLACKpANTHER]

Similar to a few responses - my son is on the smaller side and hated the practices. He loves the game and pickup ball in the neighborhood with his friends - the pads and size of other players in the organized sport was just a lot for him. He came off the bench and enjoyed the games though. Coaches were rough but I made him stick it out his 1st season and actually made him do a 2nd season - which he enjoyed much more than his 1st year. After his 2nd season - he was still adamant that he didn't want to play tackle - so I let him play flag football last year and he thrived in that and balled-the fug-out. Flag might be the way to go if your boy loves the sport but hates it's physical demands.