I'm a senior in high school, and my parents are so unsupportive of me running cross country.
I've run cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track since I was in 8th grade, and since sophomore year, my parents have been telling me to quit so I don't waste my time.
Some common phrases that I often hear are:
"If you're not the even the best in your school, do you think you'll get anywhere by running (meaning getting into a college)."
"If you're not going to rely on running to eat, why are you wasting your time now (meaning if you're not going to be a pro athlete, why are you running now, wasting your time.)
"You put so much work into running, and look at the things it's done for you (regarding my stress reaction I had junior year)."
"Running is bad for your health anyway."
There are many more comments like these that I hear all the time. And it sucks.
My parents have never been to one single race throughout my whole high school career. The only thing they have helped me at all, is driving me to practice and picking me up from practice...and even still half the time I have to bike 8 miles from my house to school for practice, because they're "too busy."
Some of my responses to them are
"If you've never been to any of my races, how do you know I'm not the best at my school (I'm actually the 3rd best, but number 1 and 2 are both sub 4:20 milers and sub 9:20 2 milers. My PR's are 4:26 and 9:36).
Sometimes they'll say like "Why do you run, it's stupid and pointless."
I'll say something like "Well, if it's stupid and pointless, why do people still run?"
And then they'll say something like "Well killing people is stupid and pointless, why do people still do it."
It's just basically this one huge argument that goes on forever and I'm soooooooo sick of it.
What can I do so if they aren't going to support me, to just don't care at all. Like not support me, fine, but don't unsupport me.