you’re free to do the math.
So far, this is our quitting year.
For context, my kids are nine, seven and nearly five.
Larissa Hofmann,Vogue, November 2023
So we did t-ball and baseball and basketball and flag football.
Hip-hop and musical theater and ballet and tap.
For a while, it was fun.
It felt like the life Covid robbed us of.
What I realized was: I’d been confusing intensity and competition.
One lingering look at the cover of Angelina Ballerina?
I’m Priming leotards.
Page the art school!
Watched a few minutes of basketball with me, likely just to shut me up?
I’ll be upstairs googling10-foot hoop what if you have no driveway?
As a Red Bull fairy mom (this isn’t… going to catch on, is it?
), I move too quickly to actualize and formalize my children’s interests.
Listen: I have searched for a chanbara league for seven-year-olds.
What’schanbara, you ask?
It’s not offered for seven-year-olds in my neighborhood!
I’m surprised at myself for getting in deep.
“I staged a self-directed summer.
I sometimes let my kidsonly watchwhat’s on, when it comes to TV.
But I have a weak spot when it comes to passionperhaps because my childhood revolved around mine.
(My first works were published on the backs of hundreds of purple ads for a nursing home.)
It was low-risk, low-reward; that’s where, as a parent, I’ve gone wrong.
A few weeks ago, I watched the noodle action and thought, Jesus Christ.
I’m halving my lunchmeat orders for budget concerns, but I’m paying for this?
I felt spiritually exhausted and financially stressed, and I had no one to blame but myself.
We’d only ended up here because I told my son hehadto picksomeactivity (why?
), and he said “chanbara.”
And I responded bybargaining him downto parkour.Why?
What would have been so bad about driving nowhere and letting him build LEGO in his room?
“Do you actually like parkour?”
I asked him, after the session.
We were on our 30-minute drive home.
So we’re quitting.
This is the new rule: If we just want to try something, we’re just trying it.
If it’s a team activity or has a set session, we’ll stay til the end.
But if it’s a rolling pool-noodle club devoid of teammates to let down?
We can Irish exit whenever we want.
Were already making good on this policy.
Proportional to grownups, thats a whole job stint on LinkedIn.
“She’ll have to finish out the month,” the manager sighed.
She was wearing a headset.
Or what?I felt like saying.No Olympic team?
I said fine, we’d finish out the month; after all, wed paid for it.
She quiet-quit gymnastics, and good for her.
