Support for NPR and the following message comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

RWJF is a national philanthropy working toward a future where health is no longer a privilege but a right.

Learn more at RWJF.org.

You're listening to LifeKit from NPR.

Hey everybody, it's Mariel.

Our visuals editor, Beck Harlan, is a self-described quitter.

She says she's always been okay with throwing in the towel, especially when it comes to hobbies.

When I was a junior in high school, I did join the cross-country team and the practice

after our first official race. Instead of running the route that the coach had mapped out for us,

I decided that I would just run home and never come back. Karate, softball, soccer, dance, clarinet, piano, golf, Girl Scouts.

Beck quit them all as a kid.

Now, I should say there's a lot she hasn't quit.

She's a committed and loyal friend and partner and a talented artist, writer, and photographer.

But now that she's a parent of a four-year-old, she's seeing those quitting instincts pop up again.

She and her husband put their son in swim lessons. And the kid hated it, right? Like begged every time not to go.

This kind of brought up for me that my husband and I have very different approaches to extracurriculars and quitting.

I was like ready to write the email telling the swim school, thank you. We're done. And my husband

was like, no, we signed up for this. We're going to finish it. To quit or to tough it out, that is the question.

On this episode of Life Kit, Beck talks with two psychologists who work with children and families about what to do when your kid wants to call it quits.

Is it inherently bad to let your child quit something?

Will that discourage grit and foster low self-esteem?

Or on the other hand,

...