Reply to Dealing with disappointment that your child doesn't want to do extracurricular activities or sports.

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I agree with the PPs who say that you need to have your daughter do one activity of any sort (her choice).  I've known friends and acquaintances who were the kids like yours...always bored, only solutions were solitary ones like computers or games.  [b]They ended up being the people who go to work, come home, watch TV, go to bed, lather, rinse repeat.  And on weekends, they don't do anything either.[/b]  Life just passes them by.  They wonder why they have no friends, can't make friends, and are bored as adults.  Some are married, but most are single well into later years.

Do you want your child to be one of those types?  Having an activity is more than just participating in that activity.  It includes socialization, learning how to meet and cope with others, and how to join activities.   Many people who don't participate in any activities in their youth, don't know how to get involved with other people, how to meet other people, how to interact with other people.  They take a new job in a new city and they have no idea how to meet people or become active.  Many of my friends like this say they never learned how to join activities or interact with other people.  You learn by doing.  Encourage your child to participate in some social activity whether sports, arts, crafts, participation, charity, etc so that they learn those social graces while young.[/quote]

I agree with some of what you've said, but I did want to point out there are plenty of people who are just born introverts and who much prefer living their lives this way - on their own terms - than being told they're "missing out" on something, or that "life is passing them by."  My husband and I both skew introverted, as do two of our children.  That's just how we are.  We enjoy hanging out as a family, but are definitely homebodies.  We may occasionally go out, but we much prefer staying in.  We don't feel life is passing us by in the least - on the contrary, we feel we're living our lives the way we prefer, rather than forcing ourselves to go out all the time and be social.

None of that means we don't have social graces though - not by a long shot.  But for us, a little socializing goes a long way.  I guess my point is to just see what kind of child you have before foisting an activity or activities on them.  Sometimes, as a PP's daughter said, these things really are pointless.  [/quote]

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