Supporting Your Child’s Dreams
It’s a fine line between helping your child pursue his dreams, versus helping them understand the reality of the situation, or in my son’s words “crushing his dreams.” At the time of this conversation my then eleven-year-old who weighed 63 pounds with a growth trajectory of 5’6 or 5’7. He was quite incensed at my audacity to suggest that his dream of paying college football in the SEC was highly doubtful.
Yes, he sometimes has grandiose ideas because we have taught him that hard work and perseverance pay off. Unfortunately, sometimes reality bites. Before my son retired from Competitive Gymnastics, in pursuit of other sports. his last lackluster gymnastics season, was compounded by a knee injury the day before State Championships. Expecting a gold medal (even without the knee injury ) was futile. Explaining that to a sensitive child, who has self confidence issues, is not an easy thing. You have to tread lightly in order to support their goals or risk setting them up for failure.
This season, as a high school freshman, my son has started as a Safety on the C Team. Next up he has wrestling season, and then Lax. He has proven himself to be a highly conditioned, great little athlete. Don’t tell him I said so, but sometimes Mom is wrong. Who knows, maybe I will be wrong about the SEC too.
