If you are an athlete who has always enjoyed sports, it can be difficult to decide to put that behind you. Whether it is giving up athletics altogether or simply switching your focus to another sport. Telling your parents that you want to quit a sports team can be difficult for many younger athletes to do.
There are a few questions to ask and you need to remember about before you decide to talk to your parents. They will want to know why you want to quit. Having answers to that question before you talk to them is a good way to show how serious you are. Explain to them, that you are not simply quitting on a whim. If you are not having fun but you have been in the past, you need to think about what has changed? Is it a new coach that you are not happy with or are you simply not interested in the sport any longer?
You want to pick the time to talk to your parents. There are times when parents are distracted or less able to respond properly to what you are telling them. You may want to talk to them and set up a time soon when you can speak to them. Set aside a good amount of time to sit down and discuss the reasons for your decision. Simply telling them you want to quit and having that be the end of the discussion will not help you. You will be in for an unpleasant time.
Your parents want what is best for you and sometimes this causes them to forget what you want. This applies to many parts in your live growing up, including team sports. Sometimes, parents may see sports as a way for you to get a scholarship or awards of many kinds. Occasionally parents have played the same sports like you. When you say you want to quit, they might feel hurt, because they think they’ve done something wrong. If you are able to address their concerns, this will help you get a head in the long run. When you feel that you can’t talk to your parents, there is another alternative. Try speaking with your coach, a guidance counselor or other trusted adult before you talk to your parents.
Don’t worry about how they will take the news. If you are, think about having that same trusted adult with you when you talk to your parents. They should stay silent for most of the conversation unless there are questions they can answer but you cannot. Having someone you trust may help you get through your talk without loosing your temper or your courage.
In the end, you need to give your parents time to accept your decision. They may have invested much time and money into your athletics. Therefore it may take them longer to be fine with the idea of you turning your back on all of that. If you are clear with your reasons you want to quit, this can help them accept your decision. This will be the time that they support what you want, instead of what they wanted for you.
Picture credit: bcmom • Creative Commons Attribution
Great advice but can u add something to it if ur parents is strict
i appreciate the advice, but what if your parents are strict. and what if your worried they will say no. Im very worried because they may get mad at me even tough i honestly hate the sport i play.
i’ve been wanting to quit tennis for a while now, but it’s been hard to find the right time to tell them i want to. they’ve invested a lot of money and time into it so i also feel bad. i honestly really dislike the sport i do in a competitive way, i always feel extreme pressure and anxiety. i like it in a way that it’s a hobby, but both my parents are so committed and started to really love the sport so idk what to do. this is good advice but i still don’t feel like it helps me enough.
I,ve had the same problem, my parents have a baby picture of me in the hallway with a shirt that says, “future world series winner”. And I have tried to tell my parents, but every time i walk down the hall to tell them i see the picture and second guess if i could let my parents down like that.
This actually helped, I’ve been not liking swimming for about 6 months now, but I felt guilty because I’ve been doing it my whole life and my parents paid for it, hopefully I can tell them now.
I have the same concern with football. My father was one of my schools best players and played in college too and it’s kinda family tradition to play and excel at sports. I’ve played football for a while but I really don’t like it. I don’t like baseball, basketball, soccer, etc. I think I’m pretty good but I’m afraid of what my family will say if I don’t wanna play.
I really want to quit my football team but my Dad is disgusted by the fact if I miss a single practice, my mom agrees with my logic because I’ve been hurt multiple times and she has seen me crying a lot is there anyway you can help me
you see I’ve been playing basketball since I was in third grade and then in seventh grade I started to take a turn and we started to do AAU and I’ve been doing it all the way up to my junior year I’m currently getting Recruited as a Division I player and I have a good amount of offers. But every time my father talks about practicing outside on my own I just don’t feel up for the game anymore. I don’t know what I should do. But I think I want to quit. And my family cannot afford to send me to college without the scholarship. Can someone please help me?
So this didn’t end up working for me. I had a panic attack, my parents didn’t do anything about it, my parents gave me a 2-hour speech of how I’m fat and need to play basketball, and how I just don’t want to exercise, and now I want to die. So yeah.
I really like horse riding and I love it but I only really started in lockdown but I also do dance which o have kind of lost interest in my parents are forcing me to do it which is going to leave me no time for horses after lockdown but that’s what I really like but they don’t understand I would be rather be doing horse riding I keep telling them don’t waste you money on dance when I want to be horse riding but whatever I do they won’t listen