Track & Field

Cassie, my 12 year old, is in Track & Field at her school. She doesn't really like it very much and wants to quit but I would not let her. I suppose it's not very nice of me to make her continue to participate in an activity that she doesn't like. Years from now when she's in her 30s, she'll probably still be mad at me.
Honestly, I have her best interest in mind. Right now, when she's not at school, she's got her nose glued to a television screen playing video games. That's not very healthy. I can't exactly send her outside to play. There's nowhere to play and nothing for a child to do around here. It's all busy streets and parking lots and I'm not going to have her go play out in the parking lot. I get concerned about her inactivity. It's not healthy for a child to get so little physical activity.
I told her at the beginning of the school year that I expected her to participate in at least one sport this year. At first, she said she'd do volleyball. But when time for volleyball sign up came around, she didn't sign up for it. So now Track & Field is the last sport of the school year. She actually seemed enthusiastic about it before it started. One morning she saw a group of high school joggers and expressed a desire to run with a track team. But once it was time for her to actually join the track team, she started to resist. She's asked me several times for permission to quit but I wouldn't let her. She hates days when there is track and her shoulders slump over as she leaves for school on track days. Then again, she is a bit prone to being over dramatic at times. But it's clear she's not having fun.
She's been in track for all of April so far. Yesterday was her first track meet. She insisted that she didn't want us going to any of her track meets. She didn't want us to watch her. I just might sneak and go to a few anyways but we'll see when it warms up again.
The thing is, she is actually a really good runner! She has always been a quick runner, especially endurance running. I remember through her entire grade school 'career', regardless of what school she went to, she was always the fastest runner in every class. "Mommy, I'm the FASTEST runner in my class! Even faster than the boys," she would proudly tell me when she got home, and she would brag about the various races they ran in gym.
Her track team has over 200 members in it! Yeah, it's big. So they have to qualify to go to track meets for events. She was the 6th place qualifier for the 800m run and qualified to go to the track meet for that event. She didn't want to go but yesterday she did go to her first track meet. She says she placed 6th in the race at the track meet. Good girl!
So at this first track meet, it was her school versus two other schools. One school, which is sort of like a paid private-type school, had I forget how many members in it. It was either 8 members or 16 members(?), but regardless it was dwarfed in size by her school's 200 members. The other school had a lot more than the 'private' school but still far less than her school. It sounds comical. I wish I had been there. I definitely have to sneak to one of her track meets and see for myself.
It was interesting getting her back home. She called home right after school to let us know she decided to participate in the track meet after all, and that it ended after the activity bus so that she would need us to pick her up when it ended. However she didn't know what time it would end. So we had to try to guess. She didn't have her cell phone with her. Jon went at 5pm and picked her up. And I could almost detect a little enthusiasm in her voice when she told me about the meet. We'll see how it goes!