Extracurriculars you regret supporting

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:gymnastics

Care to elaborate on the reasons why? Too much time and money?

+injuries +body image issues oh, and why bother?

Just to give a different experience, my DD did gymnastics until 7th grade and it was great for her. Started with rec, moved to team in 3rd grade. She learned discipline, an appreciation for what her body could do and how strong her body is. The girls were a beautiful mix of body shapes and sizes.

It was a great springboard to other sports, few of the girls on team stuck with it past middle school because of the intensity and wanting to do other/more things in high school, but they've all gone into other sports and done well. Diving, volleyball, lacrosse, etc. The flexibility, balance, and just the overall awareness of their body has served them well in athletics.

I was going to offer the same perspective. My DD quit around the same time as the PP to pursue a different sport. At that point, she decided that she preferred a team sport over an individual one. However, she learned so much about discipline, time management, and taking risks from her experience in gymnastics. She's about to finish high school, and recently, I asked her what the other girls from her old team are doing now. Only one still does gymnastics, and a good number had injuries that led to them quitting when they did. However, what impressed me the most was how many have committed to play another sport in college - lacrosse, field hockey, track and field, and softball.

[Anonymous]

Theater!!!!

I rue the day

[Anonymous]

Both our kids loved the activity they became interested in - but both were time consuming and expensive. They don't regret it but I did let them know, their dad and I would have chosen to take them on international trips had they not been so committed. They would say they learned so much from them and I would say our DD definitely did - pursuing a gap year for her activity and then having to pivot away for awhile changed the trajectory of her life in a very positive way. Jury is still out for DS.

[Anonymous]

Club rugby in college. Over half of the team has been injured during games. Because it is a club sport there is no support for these players in navigating the college and getting supports after an injury. Our dd was injured in the spring and is still seeing a doctor about her head injury. This is a dangerous sport without coaches and should not be allowed without school supports in place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Competitive dance - costumes, makeup, dance moves, etc. Who are they trying to impress? Creeps?

+1. Competition dance is such a waste. We left and found a lively non-competitive team and we are all so much happier.

I would add any sort of dance, including ballet, at a dance school/studio with a poor environment can wind up being a big regret in hindsight.

Agree. I advise avoiding dance all together. While it occasionally can be a good environment and beneficial, more likely than not it won't be

I am so happy with found a solid studio. It is ballet centered but still has other dance styles. Body positive. No crazy competitions.

I have a friend whose white daughter is a really talented hip hop dancer which she still does in college. She’s in college in NYC and goes to the serious studios there.

[Anonymous]

Basketball - even though it was only played on the rec level my kid really hated it and we only did the team bc some of her friends were doing it. But we should have just skipped it. Total waste of time for my kid and for us as parents.

[Anonymous]

Travel soccer. The parents and coaches were way too into it and I witnessed some pretty bad behavior.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Club rugby in college. Over half of the team has been injured during games. Because it is a club sport there is no support for these players in navigating the college and getting supports after an injury. Our dd was injured in the spring and is still seeing a doctor about her head injury. This is a dangerous sport without coaches and should not be allowed without school supports in place.

They didn’t have coaches? How did that work, did they just coach themselves?

[Anonymous]

Travel baseball.

DS was/is good enough for a B level team, but the culture is so toxic. It brings out the worst in coaches and kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Theater!!!!

I rue the day

Just curious: Why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Competitive dance - costumes, makeup, dance moves, etc. Who are they trying to impress? Creeps?

Everyone gets a trophy. The medals and trophies became meaningless after awhile. The awards ceremonies were a joke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Competitive dance - costumes, makeup, dance moves, etc. Who are they trying to impress? Creeps?

Everyone gets a trophy. The medals and trophies became meaningless after awhile. The awards ceremonies were a joke.

So you want it to be even more competitive?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:gymnastics

Care to elaborate on the reasons why? Too much time and money?

+injuries +body image issues oh, and why bother?

Add to that bullying and coaches who are ill equipped to deal with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:gymnastics

Care to elaborate on the reasons why? Too much time and money?

+injuries +body image issues oh, and why bother?

Add to that bullying and coaches who are ill equipped to deal with it.

And coaches who bully.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tennis. We definitely should have stuck with the recreational outdoor clinics and then put it on a shelf, for her to come back to from time to time as something social to do with friends. She chose to focus on it over soccer when she was younger but now that she's in middle school the competitive environment at the indoor club makes her want to quit entirely. We're not country club people either, so there are fewer options for friendly year-round playing opportunities with kids who can sustain a good rally but who aren't always striving to compete at the next level, whatever that is (tournaments, college, etc). At least that we've found in NOVA anyway. Maybe it's different in other parts of the country.

She wants to try out for the high school team and see if that brings back the fun for her, and then she'll probably quit completely if it's just more of the same.

I suspect tennis is fairly competitive in the majority of schools across the country. But one of my big issues with life in the DMV is that there isn't really a lot of openings for kids to play sports without starting at age 4 (or whetever) and to continue playing at a recreation level, rather everyone gunning for limited spaces and college recruitment.

This and I think there's a huge business opportunity here because we all want our kids out being active and engaged and healthy but most of us aren't willing to wake our kids up at the Crack of dawn to travel to a special gym and poor the college money down the drain all while watching every morsel they eat inorder to fulfill our unrequited childhood dreams vicariously.