With the school year in full swing, Canadian parents are probably busy carting their kids from one activity to the next.

According to a 2008 Statistics Canada report, 86 per cent of children are enrolled in at least one extracurricularactivity.

The options seem endless -- whether it’s hockey or soccer, ballet or violin. But if your child isn’t enjoying the activity, it can sometimes feel like pulling teeth to keep them involved.

But how do you know if you really should pull a child out of an activity after they say they aren’t enjoying it?

Clinical psychologist Dr. Karen Kaffko says parents should consider three main factors before saying it’s okay to quit.

Why did you sign your child up in the first place?

The most obvious reason for most parents, she says, is skill development: Most activities tend to be focused on learning a new ability, whether it is athletics, music or art.

But the more important reason is social development. The majority of activities are often group-based, allowing children to forge friendships, learn commitment and help them figure out who they are.

“We sign them into group activities where they learn a sense of self, how to negotiate with peers, how to deal with anger, and how to work with people,” Kaffko told CTV’s Canada AM Tuesday.  “It’s very, very important social skill development.”

And that pays off down the road, as kids are learning life-long lessons on how to interact with their peers.

Has my child been in the activity long enough to make an informed decision?

Children will often say they “hate” something if they don’t know it.

“There’s a learning curve when you sign your child up for something,” Kaffko explains. “And we all know that learning curves are really hard at the beginning.”

But parents need to respect that learning curve, she says, suggesting a child shouldn’t be pulled out of an activity before they’ve learned some “mastery” of the skill.

“You send your child out there on the baseball team and he sits back with his glove because he hasn’t really learned to catch yet,” Kaffko says. “(He’ll say) I hate baseball.”

Giving a child more time to get better at that skill allows parents -- and kids -- to make a more informed decision about whether they actually enjoy the activity or if it’s not for them.

How much am I projecting my own views onto my child?

Often used as a way to bond with children, Kaffko says parents will project themselves onto their kids by thinking about their own views related to a certain activity.

“(We may think) my child, he’s not very athletic, but I was never athletic. My child isn’t really musical, I was never musical,” Kaffko explains. “It’s a way of … empathizing and feeling close.”

But that projection can lead parents to pulling their kids out too soon, she says, and children never get a true chance to develop those skills.

“In fact, they are seeing their child through their own issues.”

Since parents today are often more involved than in the past, she says it’s important for them to stop and think about how their child’s experiences differ from their own. That realization may help in deciding whether it is an opportunity they feel their child should be pursuing.

Above all, Kaffko says parents need to think about the opportunities they want their children to have in the future.

Swimming, for example, is an important safety skill that’s better learned as a young child than as a teen or young adult.

On the other hand, a skill like skiing might simply provide your child with a potential social outlet as an adult.

 “Because that’s what this is all really about,” Kaffko says. “Putting my child in a place where they meet friends and they can have friends in life.”