feedback
“I Quit!”
wanted to, and I resented them for it. If it is in-between seasons, my kids can decide to not continue an activity they previously did mid-season? Still maybe. It depends.” -Maggie N. “Kids love an activity until it gets hard. But hard practices make game days and perfor- mance days easy. I say: Toughen up.” Sean B. “I can’t handle the whining and I hate nag- ging my kids to get ready when they don’t want to go to practice or games. We end up late with kids crying. I don’t have the energy to fight toddlers about going to practice when they just don’t care about it. If they quit, I quit, too. Clearly we had a bad t-ball experience last year, and I am not over it.” -Stacy D. “Not happening. When you sign up for a sport, you sign up to be a part of a team.” -Chad F. “My daughter had a really hard experience in cheerleading with mean girls. We went to the coaches, and then to the principal. And then we let her quit. It was sad all around. Those mean girls are still mean, but my daughter
has moved onto other activities with more supportive friends.” -Lauren R. “I tell my kids to stick with things they start. Life is full of hard moments, and you can’t always quit.” -Tyler L. “If you don’t like your job, you quit. If you don’t like your house, you move. Life is too short to be unhappy doing anything trivial, so why force kids to do something they want to quit?” -Kelly S. “It has to be a discussion and they have to have good reasons to want to quit. Not just that they don’t like practice because it’s hot.” -Taylor J. “This is us right now! My nine-year old want- ed to play guitar, but is ‘over it’ just because it takes so much work and she isn’t playing full songs yet. We already paid for the sessions, so she is going to go until those run out. Even then, I am going to push her to keep going because learning a new skill doesn’t just happen overnight.” -Sara M.
BY AMANDA CIANI PHOTO BY MAGNIFIC.COM
T he kids are starting to settle into their back-to-school routines, and now it is time to tack on some evening practices and weekend games to the already-busy fam- ily schedule. New cleats for soccer, fresh drum sticks for the budding rock star, fresh ballet slippers for those tiny dancers! The excite- ment is real! Until it isn’t. Sometimes kids go from enthusiastic to dreadful “I don’t want to go!” cries within weeks of starting an extracur- ricular. So we asked, and you answered:
How do you handle when your kid wants to quit an activity before it’s supposed to “end”?
“I think it depends. If they have a bad coach or teacher they don’t like, that’s something I would consider letting them quit. But if it’s just because they are bored of it, it’s going to
be a no.” -Dave R.
“Did I already pay for all of the season or lessons?” -Lacy W.
“My parents didn’t let me quit dance when I
8 SEPTEMBER 2026 | CINCINNATIFAMILYMAGAZINE.COM
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