Parenting

Parentcaster

Do any fellow parents have tips on how much to encourage kids to persevere? 

My kid is 6 and has been doing football (soccer) for a few months - an activity that he wanted to do. The coach makes a real effort with him, but he doesn’t apply himself very much.

Full-stack and Solidity dev @ Axis Finance, OlympusDAO. Formerly: GuardianUI

I’ve had discussions with him about it, about practising and persevering so he can go up a level (into a class one of his friends is in), but it hasn’t made a difference. 

When is it ok to call it quits and find another activity that he might enjoy?

His friends were playing in the same class - that was his reason! They’ve since moved up a level as they were applying themselves and getting better.

If you can find out what made you kid want to do football in the first place, that would be insightful on what to do next. Maybe you can lean into and amplify that original interest to overcome the current challenges. Maybe they realized it's not for them and you can 'finish' the session and try something different.

When I reply: You are awesome, I mean it!
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Thank you! You’re right that it should be fun at this stage.

I would absolutely prioritize the fun and play in this. He’s six. The work and The time where he has to power through comes later. And if he has no fun in it, then it doesn’t matter anyways. Also, I think you should push the kid to go and try but not to the point where he has no fun and it is just work for him.￼