Has your child ever quit a sport?

[kendallt]

Some of you who are my FB friends probably know that my daughter has been doing gymnastics for many, many years (8 to be exact - competitively for the last 3). She started immediately after we moved here when she was 6, so gymnastics and the gym we've been at have literally been a part of our lives for as long as we've lived in this town.

The competition season that just ended was a rough one. My daughter (and I) have been frustrated with her lack of progress and the fact that her coach doesn't seem to have a lot of confidence in her and doesn't seem willing to help her with the elements in which she's been struggling. I've approached her coach about private lessons to help with some of the issues, and she just keeps telling me my daughter "isn't ready." I don't understand this because she seems more than willing to help the other girls on her team. My daughter has also come home from multiple practices lately upset and crying, telling me she feels like her coach is picking on and being mean to her.

All of this is frustrating enough on its own, but there's an even more convoluted issue in that her coach and my ex husband have been having an on again-off again relationship since we got divorced. That makes things extremely awkward for me because I don't always feel I can speak my mind or push as hard as I would with any other coach due to that situation.

So, over the weekend, my daughter told me she's thought a lot about this, and she's decided she wants to quit. I told her she has to finish out the month because 1. it's paid for and 2. they are having team awards at the end of the month, and since she competed all this year, I feel like she should stick around for that. I am just feeling so conflicted. I want my daughter to be happy and can't see continuing to spend a crazy amount of money on a sport she's no longer enjoying, but I'm also SO sad to think of gymnastics and her gym and the people in it no longer being a part of our lives. Has anyone ever had a similar experience? It is SO hard being a parent sometimes.