Day: October 15, 2025

• After years of club soccer, the pace had worn us all down.
• It had never crossed my mind that we could set limits on what the club asked of us.
• One hard conversation taught us that we still had agency as parents.

At the end of the last soccer season, something had to give. After years of pouring out time and resources into supporting our middle son’s love of soccer, my husband and I decided it was time to quit club sports. We were too tired to keep going with the demanding schedule.

Yet, how would I say goodbye to parents who were now lifelong friends? My 10-year-old also had formed deep bonds with other players, and the idea of starting over at another club was daunting. We’d traveled together, endured games in freezing rain and blazing hot summers. It was a heartwrenching decision, and we agonized over it for months, but what else could we do?

We were surprised by the response my son’s coach gave us

When we approached my son’s coach at the end of last season to say we couldn’t keep up with three weekly practices and a busy tournament schedule, despite our love for his coaching, the club, and the team. He asked us why. I blurted out, “Honestly? We just need more nights free for homework and…life.”

What surprised me most was his response. Instead of a dismissal or saying, “It was nice knowing you,” he said, “Okay, I can work with that. We want your son on our team. Let’s figure out something that works for all of us.”

“Oh,” I said, stunned and expecting some caveats. But there were none. He wanted our child to continue, even if we could only make it to two out of three mandatory practices a week. In that moment, all the stress I’d built up evaporated.

In a world where people always seem to want more than I can give, our coach’s response was life-giving. It reminded me that I still had agency as a parent — something I’d started to forfeit with the ever-increasing pull on my time and energy.

Would another coach have agreed? Maybe not. However, because we were honest about our situation and the pressures on our family, he was willing to meet us halfway.

I got my agency back as a parent

It occurred to me afterward that my husband and I had more control over our family life than we’d realized. It may sound silly — we, after all, are the parents. Yet, in an effort to give our kids everything we think they want, we’d lost sight of what we, as a family, actually needed.

It often can feel like being involved in the culture of youth sports demands your life, your liberty, and, at the very least, all of your free time as a family. I’m not judging families who choose that pace. For some kids, an every-night schedule and constant tournaments are a perfect fit. But until that chat last season, we hadn’t taken a family pulse and asked what we wanted our lives to look like—time-wise. When we did, it made all the difference.

We discovered that despite the pull of school, homework, sports, and music lessons, we could take control of our story. We could choose how we wanted this chapter in our lives to play out.

Because of one conversation, our family is happier

Now, two months into the season, my child isn’t dreading practice — he’s excited to go, and so am I. He also has time to play the piano, eat dinner with us a few nights a week, and run around in the backyard with his siblings — the way I did when I was a kid.

My guess is that most coaches want what’s best for families. Ours certainly did. But we wouldn’t have discovered that had we not simply asked. And by skipping a practice, we got back something even better — not only time with our son, but also our agency as parents.

• Tesla finally launched “affordable” versions of the Model Y and 3 last week.
• Ex-Nissan COO Andy Palmer told Business Insider the new models can’t compete with Tesla’s Chinese rivals.
• Palmer is known as the “godfather of EVs” for launching the world’s first mass-market electric car.

Tesla’s “affordable” EVs are finally here — and not everyone is impressed.

Andy Palmer, the former Nissan COO who launched the Leaf, the world’s first mass-market electric car, told Business Insider that Tesla’s new Standard models won’t help it fight off fierce competition from China’s EV giants.

“If you take out the features — and Tesla has taken out an awful lot of features — then that creates a new price point, but that new price point doesn’t make it competitive with the Chinese competition, which are stacked with features,” Palmer told Business Insider.

Tesla launched the Model 3 and Y Standard, which cost $37,000 and $40,000 respectively and come without features such as Autosteer, rear screens, and radios, last week.

The lack of features and high price tags left some investors and fans underwhelmed, and Tesla’s share price fell after the new models were revealed.

Palmer, who is known as the “godfather of EVs” for his work developing the Nissan Leaf, said the new Model Y and 3 failed to fill the need for truly affordable EVs in the US.

“The US needs electric cars that are well-specified for less than $30,000,” said Palmer.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Investors have been calling for Tesla to launch more affordable EVs for years. Last week, the Cybertruck maker unveiled the new models, which cost around $5,000 less than their premium counterparts.

It comes as Tesla faces growing pressure from upstart Chinese manufacturers. Although companies like BYD and Geely don’t sell their cars in the US due to high tariffs, they are now rapidly winning market share in Europe and other global markets like Brazil and Mexico.

BYD’s lineup of affordable electric and hybrid cars has proven especially popular in Europe, with the Shenzhen-based company seeing sales surge even as Tesla’s have plummeted.

“It isn’t such a big problem in the US, but elsewhere you have Chinese models that are coming in with lots of features at a very good price point,” said Palmer.

“Stripping back a car doesn’t help you,” he added.

Chinese automakers have increasingly prioritized high-tech features such as autonomous driving and AI assistants as they battle to win customers.

BYD announced in February that it would incorporate advanced self-driving tech into all of its cars, including its cheapest model, the $8,000 Seagull. Meanwhile, Xiaomi’s $30,000 SU7 sedan allows drivers to voice control home appliances from their car.

Palmer, who spoke to Business Insider from China, said Western brands needed a “wake-up call” on the rise of Chinese automakers and had to develop strategies to match them, rather than simply relying on tariffs to keep BYD and its rivals out.

“You have to address the issue rather than standing behind regulatory or tariff rules. They’ll insulate you for a while, but don’t make the problem go away,” he said.

The Trump White House is treating spending laws more like suggestions as it tries to mute the effects of the government shutdown and attack programs it considers to be Democratic priorities as it digs in for a long shutdown.