Ramblings of a confused mama...

Parenting is HARD. Wait, let me rephrase... parenting is F^$*#(@king hard. I have blogged about Miss M's chess career obsession (for lack of a better word) before. She has been invited to play in the SA  junior championship and have been practising with her coach since December for this event in April. One night last week she asked to speak to us and after a whole long story and drama she says she wants to quit. Say what? Yes, she quit. She wants nothing to do with anything chess related. The school is begging her to play, I have had numerous phone calls from teachers and the school coach to try and convince her otherwise but she refuses. She has been called in FOUR times in the last week to discuss this matter. She has a serious stubborn gene that she (might) have gotten from me. The more everyone is pushing, the less inclined she is to play.

I have NO idea what to do.

Do we push? Force her to play?

Ignore all this drama and just carry on like nothing happened and hope she comes to her senses.

Run away and hide under my bed with a glass of grown up cool drink?

Both coaches says she has a natural talent that she cannot just give up on. My thinking is that one does not "lose" your talent... it will still be there when she decides to play again.

By saying its okay to quit, are we saying that its okay to give up?

She wants to explore other things as chess takes up a lot of her time. I am ALL for this because chess takes up a lot of MY time but stopping completely sounds a bit insane. She has worked so hard to be where she is today, would it be like throwing all that effort into the bin? On the other hand.. art classes sounds like so much fun.

F..ck this shit. I am hanging up my grown up shoes.

xxx