What to do when your kid loses interest?

[wvspeedfreak]

Well,I'm going to try and make a long story short here.About a year and a half ago I bought my son(then 5yrs old) a quad.We made a small track on our property with some jumps and whoops and stuff and he wanted to ride all the time.As he gradually got better and after a few times of riding at our closest track he wanted to start racing.I was very exited about it and was encouraging him to practice as often as he could and when the next scheduled quad race was at the track,I would let him race it.Well,when I mentioned racing to my wife she was strongly against it and he was upset as was to be expected.My wife had no issues about him riding recreationally she just didn't want him racing.So I just dropped the issue and he continued to ride here at our track and some occasional trail rides I took him on.
Now,my son turns 7 next month and my wife(after me taking her to a few races where minis were racing)decides she would be ok with him racing next year.Here is where the confusing part is.....now my son isn't the least bit interested in racing,or even riding anymore for that matter.I am not sure what to do.I don't want to pressure him into it if he really doesn't want to,but he was just so darn exited back when I first mentioned racing to him that I coudn't believe he didn't want to now.He even told me he didn't care if I sold his quad:eek2:
Any opinions from you parents out there will be highly appreciated.

[Pappy]

my youngest son goes thru spells. cody can ride all week and ryan doesnt even ask:ermm:

other times he is hell bent on riding.

id say just keep doing your thing and if he asks to ride or race then go have fun.

[wvspeedfreak]

Yeah,I realize alot of it has to do with his age.It just caught me off guard when he got the green light to go racing and he was like I don't like quads anymore:confused:

[mx3mom]

My son went through this at age 10. At that time he was riding dirt bikes. We sold out everything we had. Low and behold at 14 he decided he wanted to race again. So we bought another dirt bike, then he wanted to try atv racing. We had no idea he wasn't old enough to ride a 400ex until we went to sign him up at a local fair race. Anyway, we lied about his age, let him race the ATV, he finished 5th out of about 40 riders. That was the beginning of a new love. He will soon be 19 and still races ATV's but I made him get off of the dirt bikes. In my opinion, it needs to be your sons decision, you can't force it on him. Maybe he will come back to it and have a better view of it all.

[wvspeedfreak]

Yeah,it will totally be up to him.I just was a little surprised about it.I'll just keep the quad in the corner of the shop and if he decides he's interested it will be waiting for him ;)

[QuadJunkies]

I worry about this stuff myself, for now its no problem, if anything, we dont ride enough !! :p but, my Daughter is right at the age where boys are going to become an interest , I just keep encouraging her to concentrate on BEATING them ! :p
I agree with the others and kids do go threw phases

I bet he will come around ;)

[thunderisland]

Hello I'm in the same boat as the first post on this topic.My son Cain use too love to race this year has been a different story.He started middle school football practice,camp and now the season has began and he interest in racing is not there.He has a chance to very competitive in the GNCC youth series but if the desire is not there am I spinning our wheels.With 2 races left in the series he has not expressed no interest

[wilkin250r]

Honestly, I think the best advice would be to immerse yourself in your own quad and your own races.

Think about it. Why was your son interested in racing and quads in the first place? Because YOU were involved in it.

Obviously, it would be a bad idea to try to force your son into racing. But if you get involved with riding and racing, it's more likely that he will want to get involved also.

Also, arrange rides outside of racing. Hit some trails, hit some dunes if any are available. You can make a full family event, or perhaps just a duo, a little father-son bonding time. The more time he spends on his quad, the more likely he will want to race.

[Rocketman80]

We've seen alot of this in racing. My son started racing at the age of 3 on snowmobiles. He then wanted to race ATV's so we started doing that. I have the same concerns that he might get burnt out or just not want to do it anymore. Obviously you can't ever force your child to do something they're not interested in. But it's pretty hard for a kid to see other kids doing it and not want to do it themselves. I think you're doing the right thing, just keep the ATV around and when he's ready to go back at it, he will. If you look at Tucker Hibbert from snocross racing, he was on top at age 16 with a factory ride from Arctic cat. He then up and just quits to go race motocross were he's not the top dog like he was with snocross. WHY? The most important thing is that you just spend time with your child and always compliment them on doing a great job whether they finished first or last. If your child doesn't take first place, it's probably not his fault anyways. I've always told my kid that it was my fault for not setting the bike up right and that he did everything right. It helped him with learning how to be a good sport with being a gracious winner and a humble loser. That's the difference between being a good racer and a great racer and defines who you are within the race community. The old saying will always remain true that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, so if you continue to show interest in racing and do it yourself, your child will probably come around. If he doesn't it sounds like there may be some underlying fear that he needs to over come. Did he ever have a bad crash? Personally I have found racing MX/TT to be more safe than trail riding. There are too many unexpected obsticles on the trails so we stick strictly to racing. But if my kid said Dad I don't feel like racing, then there is a million other things that we can do and have fun doing it. So hang in there and I'm sure your son will come around.

[wvspeedfreak]

Thanks everyone for the posts.I really appreciate all the input.:)

[AtvMxRider]

The best thing I can tell you is let him make his own decision. My youngest who races dirtbikes goes thru this every once in awhile. I can understand becuase he races 41 weekends out of the year so it does get old going every weekend. We took about 4 weeks off and he came back fresh and fast as ever. So just give it time and he may change his mind.