At the beginning of the school year Ludovica chose Gymnastic as extra activity. She was so excited to learn how to do the cartel the hand stand and the bridge.
But since the very first lesson I realized that for her was not that easy. The other girls were more flexible, faster and coordinated than her, but she was fine with that.
Ludovica was still enjoying the lessons and the time spent with her friends.
After the first quarter she started to struggle. She realized she was the worst of the team and it was not funny anymore.
For me, as a mom, watching her trying again and again with no results was really painful… .
My first thought was that maybe she was not putting enough effort, but than I realized that it was not the cup of tea.
She asked me to quit and I honestly didn’t know what to do.
I think it is important for children to learn that not being the best is ok and that is important not to give up and that once you start something you need to finish it… and all that, but keeping Ludovica motivated to stay on the team even without haveing the same results as the other girls was really hard.
I wanted to celebrate what she did achieved, but is was not enough. I was asking her a lot and it was affecting her in many different ways.
Now, when your child is not very good at something and you both recognize that, sometimes they need you to save them from the situation.
So I decided to let her quit. Quitting is not always a bad thing and at her age I don’t think it is necessary to deal with such pain. There are surely many more tests in life for her and I will help her to go through these.
She will eventually have to deal with most of those alone but knowing I’m there to support her no matter what.
Did you find yourself in this kind of situation? What did you do?
Raffaella
