There are a lot of great people here on this site, people I consider good friends, and I haven't even met a one of you. Thank you for your encouragement and support.
The week before I had given her an exercise to do at home to help with her concentration and focus.
Spot on! However, I think it's worse when they are 16. It's definitely a dizzying array of things that distract kids now days.
What's interesting is just under two years ago (when she was 14) DD announced that she really wanted to play softball. Having coached my oldest daughter from the age of 11 through 17, I knew she was starting WAY LATE. I also knew it might end up this way, so I was very mopey about it. Interestingly, it was my wife who got after me to the point I went out in the back yard and started off showing her the beginnings of pitching. Then, I got her on a rec team and helped coach that. Then that fall I gathered up 14 of the best rec players I could find and started a competitive team. I really took it by the horns. That's the irony of it all. Wife gets after me, I respond by doing, then the support falls off the table. I guess she thought it would just be the rec stuff, but that's not me, and my daughter wanted more. Yeah, there's a bit of a history with the support issues between me and my wife, so that's not the whole problem here. DD grew up and really started wanting that social life......ALL THE DAMNED TIME. The interest in working on her pitching dropped off the table. Yeah, it was finally me who told her she should tell her HS coach that she's not pitching. Why? Because I have two other dedicated pitchers who need game time and it isn't fair to give the HS coach a false sense of hope in someone who wouldn't work on it. Yes, at this point she's content to play left field on the varsity as a sophomore. I guess that's good enough. Yeah, I thought she had potential to be a great pitcher, but if she's more interested in these other things on the side, I guess I can't change that. Years from now she will regret this as her older sister does, but she's not going to get that now.
Yeah, I'm torn up, and it ain't easy gettin' over it. Not easy at all. Of course, the thing that keeps running through my head is this.... "Is this my fault? Is this my fault??"
Of course, the thing that keeps running through my head is this.... "Is this my fault? Is this my fault??"
It is not your fault.