Parenting Question for Sports/Activities & your 4 year old
Ryan has been involved in Hockey since October. Practice is every weekend, Saturday and Sunday. He had a bad experience one time and hit his head, and got hurt even though he had a helmet on, which has since made him digress and skiddish - he now wont skate with his stick, only with the 'walker' ... all of the other kids are skating with their sticks playing in the games ...
but thats not really what my question is ... he is 4 years old... and some days he wakes up and says he doesn't want to go to Hockey practice that day (for example ... today). We ask him why, and sometimes we can get an answer (like I am tired since practice is so early) but sometimes he just doesnt want to, and sometimes he says 'I dont like hockey' ...
so here is my question ...
Would you - or do you, let your preschooler make the decision of not going to the activity? So far, since we dont want him to hate the sport because we force him to go - when he says he doesn't want to go - we arent forcing him... (plus he has already played like 20-30 times)
however, I am reluctant to let him quit all together for the rest of the season (he hasnt asked to quit this season, but in case it comes up) .......
Growing up, I quit every sport or dance class because I didnt want to work hard at it, and I regret that my parents let ME make those decisions, I wish they forced me into them ...
SO what do you think? Is what we are doing right? What should we do? Should we be giving into him not wanting to go?
