Should you force your child to continue with lessons

[cookderosa]

I have my 7 year old daughter every weekend, needless to say I'm divorced. I enrolled her in tennis lessons last week with an instructor and she was improving so I scheduled another lesson for tomorrow. Also the instructor was a good teacher and was good with kids, I watched the whole lesson. However, right before we were going to bed she has a tantrum and starts crying telling me that she doesn't want any more tennis lessons. She tells me she hates tennis and I make her life worse because I keep making her do things she doesn't like. She also mentioned that I take her to watch bad movies like Hugo and Tin Tin out of the blue. But out of the sports I've tried to play with her she seemed to enjoy tennis the most, so at least I thought. But after trying to console her and giving her a speech about following through on things you start, I cancelled the lesson because I could tell she wasn't going to let this go to the point where she started hyperventilating. After I told her I cancelled she looked so relieved and fell asleep right away. Anyway, I feel bummed out because I feel like I gave her the ok to quit and that's not the life lesson I want to teach her. What does the Parenting 101 Manual say to do in situations like this?

Parenting 101 Manual? If there was 1 right way, there'd be 1 book. And there's a heck of a lot of books out there.

However, is that true? Was it her idea or yours? None of my kids, at that age, ever asked to be married to anything. They wanted to play. If I can add a tiny other perspective. Telling children that they must be committed should be with specific criteria (THEY join a team, they should finish the season, etc). Otherwise, they won't want to try anything for the fear that dad will require a decade of enrollment. Sampling is good. Commitment is a decision one makes after sampling. Just my two cents. the other two cents: enjoy your daughter. Play with her. I'd bet a nickle she'd rather do that than any organized activity. In 5 years? Not the case. Time is fleeting.