Herself is keen to drop out of tennis lessons. You will remember that she left ballet and that she no longer comes to GAA training. On the plus side she likes cycling and her swimming is improving. The coach has offered to give her lessons alone as he thinks that she feels that the other children are better than her and this is why she wants to give up. Incidentally, this is not the case, they are all quite dreadful. She has agreed to give this a go and we will monitor progress.
I am reminded of our friend M who said recently that when he was a child, he just wanted to read “Swallows and Amazons” in peace but his parents kept trying to drag him out for sailing lessons. Maybe I should leave her in peace.
On the one hand, childhood is an ideal time to try to learn all of this stuff when the body and brain are primed for learning, but on the other hand the Princess has quite a lot of childhood left. Maybe she will gain an interest in tennis in her teens.
Maybe, it doesn’t have to be tennis but some sporting activity involving her peers would be a good thing, I feel.
Trick is to fool them with swallows and amazons (sheer class btw) and then sneak sailing up on them when they are the right age (@10)
Well, O, if I can sneak up any kind of organised activity at all, it will, frankly, be a triumph.