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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Don't push and let her have a life outside of sports [/quote]

This. My kid's friends who do soccer have no time for anything else, it takes over evenings and weekends. Even though she likes it, I personally would consider dropping it for something less all-consuming. [b]It's important to me that my kid have time for other things. [/b][/quote]

I agree with you, but it’s kid dependent. If the kid is going to use their free time for truly rejuvenating things (sleeping, socializing, family time, hobbies, roaming around and staring at clouds) that’s fine. But if they are going to be on their phone the whole time, it’s probably better to overschedule them.[/quote]

Kids need to have a life outside of school, homework and activities. Will some kids not use their time wisely? Yes, but that doesn't mean you should treat all kids like that. [/quote]

My daughter in the 4th grade had a friend whose mother scheduled her every waking hour.   She came with us to a cookout that was near a Fourth of July carnival.  She had never gone to one and I’d never seen her so happy.   By, middle school she had turned awkward and uncomfortable in social settings.   She never had a minute to experience life outside of supervised training.  [/quote]

For every story like that, other kids went from D1 athletics to running Fortune 500 companies.  I was nationally competitive in a sport that required intense training from a young age - my peers who I trained with are a neurosurgeon, a big law partner, and a trust fund kid with a "job" working in their family office and a busy public social life that mainly involves giving away money.  You should probably keep your judgments and predictions of the outcome of high-achieving kids to yourself because it's pretty complicated to predict the trajectory of a fourth grader. [/quote]

I think that every parent wants their kids to be successful, but not at the expense of their childhoods. [/quote]

Absolutely, but "at the expense of their childhoods" is subjective.  Look at Alyssa Liu - she spent her childhood figure skating, then retired at 16 after winning a bronze medal at worlds and a 6th at the olympics because she was burnt out.  After two years off the ice, she missed the sport and returned to figure skating in 2024 and just won 2025 Worlds.  In the press conference following Worlds, she said she didn't regret anything that brought her to where she is today.  She's also a student at UCLA, and it is a well-known fact that Alyssa is social, extroverted, and almost always has a smile on her face.  Nathan Chen is a student at Yale, living a relatively normal student life.  Sarah Hughes is getting her MBA at Harvard and sits on several boards. Vera Wang went on to have a pretty great life after figure skating.   Michelle Kwan is the US Ambassador to Belize. This is the sport I follow, and the examples I share are all public information, but others could insert relevant examples from other sports.

If you can't agree to let people make reasonable judgments for their child based on what suits that child, then it's your problem.  Most of us know our children better than strangers.   There are bad parents everywhere who make poor decisions, but I doubt sports parents index high in that area relative to the general population.  Most sports parents are in tune with their child's needs, and we try to act in their best interests.  Like I'm sure OP will do for her daughter. [/quote]

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