Show notes
What do you do when your kid loves games but fights going to practice? A mom in Grand Rapids wrote to me about her 8 year old: begs to sign up, beams on game day, and turns the front hallway into a hostage negotiation on practice nights. In this episode I start with the reassurance: both kids are real. Games are dessert, practice is dinner, and negotiating against dinner is just being eight.
Then the detective work, because the fight has information in it. Is it a launch problem, fighting the leaving, not the practice, fine four minutes after arrival? Those have boring fixes: car snacks, packed bags, warning rituals, small choices. Or is it something inside the practice, a dreaded drill, a mean kid, a too-loud coach? Her shoulders in the first five minutes will tell you which letter you're in.
And the straight answer on pushing: push on logistics, we signed up so we go, calm and boring like brushing teeth. Never push on love, no wasted-money lectures, no wanting-it-more speeches, because that's what actually kills sports for kids. Grumbling is not quitting. Plus the boundary: dread, tears, and stomachaches are a different language, and they get listened to, not pushed through.
Got a question for the show? Email me at hey@heysammi.com.
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