Daughter dropping all hobbies.

[FriendlyRobin]

My daughter is turning 13 soon and has announced she wants to drop scouts (her interest in this did wane last term) and her sport. This was twice a week and although she was regional level she's plateued and isn't improving so again over summer she's been reluctant to go.

But she will go from a girl who wanted to do everything in primary to someone who doesn't do any activities (dropped her instrument 6 months ago.)

Is this normal for some girls as part of becoming a teen? It does seem that kids either become super competitive at their sports or drop out at this stage. But I'm a bit sad about scouts. But again she's done it for 3 years now.

I don't want her to end up just watching TV every night (or is that also normal?!)

At my school (private a long time ago) it was compulsory that you picked one extra curricular activity a term. It was things like dance, trampoline, baking, dressmaking (it was the 90s), horseriding, volunteering with disabled children etc. We had to do PE once a week which was a different sport each term. Also participating in sports day was compulsory.

The super talented ones had their things but I liked it as I got to try different things without feeling too pressured and it instilled the sense that taking part and having a go feels good.

It's really important to do something that isn't competitive. And know that it's okay to coast as long as you maintain a degree of consistency!

She will absolutely do baking at home! Thankfully she loves cooking and will experiment on us. I'm moving more towards actual meals and she's made flatbreads and hummous one day and sushi at the weekend. So I guess that would be equivalent to "cooking club" at private school perhaps. She's home earlier than most private schools so she's kind of doing that at home.

She's also doing craft/art for fun. In no way is it amazing but she loves it and I want to keep that. We have a bazillion Taylor swift beads.. Etc.

This is actually something DD did at Explorers.

She originally wanted to do DoE but her school was really into "do something brandnew". It was Spring of 2021 and we just came out of lockdown no. 2, DD was in the full swing of anxiety and it was a disaster.

Come June that year and she joint Explorers, her leader asked about DoE and was quite "everything you do extra and learn is vital, just carry on and it counts for the Platinum Award, you don't have to invent the wheel again."

So, DD carried on with one hobby, started volunteering and after some intial plans fell through, did her overnight trip on a Stand-up paddle board 10 miles the day after her last GCSE exam.
She is a Young Leader for the Beavers and doesn't plan to stop.

Sometimes it just takes the right person to get them going.