Reply to Would you let your child continue with an expensive and time consuming sport if they aren’t any good at it?

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[quote=Anonymous]As someone who was in a similar position at this age — I adored figure skating but by the time I was 10 everyone knew that I was never going to be any good; I was too big and my parents always encouraged me to prioritize school anyway — I’m so so glad my parents let me keep skating.  I loved my 6am practices before school (biggest shoutout to my dad for getting up and taking me to these) and I love getting to learn new skills (even if it took me three or four times longer than the other kids) and I loved performing in the ice show every spring and I love competing with our synchronized skating team (even if I was taller than most of the 18 year olds when I was 12).  I think being allowed to do something I was bad at was actually good for me in a lot of ways: I learned that the important thing about doing stuff for fun is that it’s FOR FUN regardless of whether you’re any good, I learned how to work hard and take criticism without getting defensive, and I acquired a habit of exercise.

In retrospect what my parents spend on ice time, lessons, skates, costumes, tests, travel for competitions, etc was ridiculous to say nothing of the aforementioned 6am practices and taking me to the rink in the next town over every day all summer and silly weekend trips to sit in yet another ice rink all winter.  But I’m really glad they could afford it and were willing to make it work.

But there are finances to consider as well as familial logistical sanity — but I would make those decisions based on what you feel you can handle rather than your child’s talent.[/quote]

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