You signed your kid up for the soccer team (or swimming lessons, or piano or art), paid the fee and now they're begging to quit! In these moments, it's difficult to know what decision will help your kid grow in the long run. Do you ask them to tough it out and develop perseverance? Or trust their emotions? In this episode, Life Kit visuals editor Beck Harlan talks to two family psychologists about what to do when your kid tells you they're never going back to that extracurricular. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
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You're listening to Life Kit from NPR.
Hey everybody, it's Marielle, our visuals editor.
Beck Harlan is a self described quitter.
She says she's always been okay with throwing in the towel, especially when it comes to hobbies.
When I was a junior in high school, I did join the cross country team and the practice.
After our first official race, instead of running the route that the coach had mapped out for us, I decided that I would just run home and never come back.
Karate, softball, soccer, dance, clarinet, piano, golf, Girl Scouts, bec quit them all as a kid.
Now I should say there's a lot she hasn't quit.
She's a committed and loyal friend and partner and a talented artist, writer and photographer.
But now that she's a parent of a four year old, she's seeing those quitting instincts pop up again.
She and her husband put their son in swim lessons and the kid hated it, right?
Like, begged every time not to go.
This kind of brought up for me that my husband and I have very different approaches to extracurriculars and quitting.
I was like ready to write the email telling the swim school, thank you, we're done.
And my husband was like, no, we signed up for this.
We're going to finish it.