When should you stop youth sports?
A survey conducted by the Aspen Institute along with the Utah State University Families in Sports Lab found that kids on average quit playing sports by age 11. That’s typically by the sixth grade, the start of middle school, before the “my parents are not cool” phase is supposed to happen.
What to say to a kid that wants to quit?
Remind your child that they chose to quit, and that these consequences come with quitting. You can say something like “We discussed this before you quit. I respected your decision, but now it’s too late to rejoin the swim team. You’ll have to wait until the next season.”
Should you let your child quit a sports team?
When it comes to making the decision about whether you should let your child quit a sports team, there isn’t one right answer. Instead, you should think about what lesson you want your child to learn. If your child comes to you saying she wants to quit, do some investigating. 1 Try to get to the bottom of why your child wants to quit.
Why don’t teenagers play sports?
Needless to say, when sports get serious and winning becomes the primary goal, which tends to happen around middle school, it puts tremendous pressure on teenagers—and there’s not much fun in that. For starters, there are the physical demands of rigorous training schedules.
What happens if a child drops out of a sports program?
If the child does drop out, there may be other opportunities to play in a sports program that doesn’t have the negative factors that prompted the decision to quit. For more information, visit the Youth Enrichment in Sports website.
Is your child wanting to quit an activity?
Ann-Louise T. Lockhart, PsyD, ABPP, is a board-certified pediatric psychologist, parent coach, author, speaker, and owner of A New Day Pediatric Psychology, PLLC. It’s not uncommon for kids to want to quit an activity. Whether it is a sports team, a musical instrument, or a club they’ve joined, sometimes they just don’t want to stick it out.