When Quitting is the Right Thing to do

I wrote those dreaded words in an email to the Dude's head swim coach. It was one of the hardest things to do. I didn't use the word quit. I wrote withdrawal, but I meant quit. I expressed our thanks and appreciation for our time spent in the pool for the last year.

Leading up to this decision I spoke with parents and a few others to gauge what they went through with their kids. The initial acceptance, the tiredness, or complaining. Kids don't like the hard work. It is an individual sport. Swim practice isn't fun. The reality is the Dude plays two other sports he enjoys more, and swimming year-round was taking up every spare evening.

Practice isn't fun. What I had to remember is hard work is acceptable when you love the reward. Practicing basketball or baseball is okay because you have to do it to it to play in the game.

It is a struggle to quit an activity for me because I don't want to limit him. However, we can't do it all. We must prioritize and make choices in life. There is much value in learning how to do this. In the end, I took a step back. I listened to my child and realized that he was right. I told him too. I apologized to him. He played outside, we went for dinner to our friend's house. Now he has more time to do whatever he (or we) want to do. He is happier and I'm happier too.

We all need unstructured time. Free time to be spontaneous. It feels like a reward, and that may be something telling.