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Don’t Use My Kid as a Stepstool for Your Kid’s “Success”
Spoiler alert: my son is not a midget. How is that relevant? Or even an appropriate word to use in the year 2018? Read on.
It’s a complicated time to be a parent. Many of us had full lives and jobs, were striving for the brass ring for many years before we gave birth to our children.
For many of us type A humans, we then become type A parents — bound and determined to give our kids The Best and to push them to be The Best. To get them on the Best sports team, to push them toward the Best college.
I generally have no opinion whatsover about any one person’s kids or parenting style. I have enough on my plate as it is, and don’t have time to worry about anyone else.
Until someone else’s parenting style affected my child.
My 7 year old son, we’ll call him L, is on a soccer team. He enjoys it, and likes running around with his friends. He is terrible at soccer, and the team has not won a single game. But, if he doesn’t care, I don’t care.
The soccer season just ended. A few days later, I bumped into the coach of L’s team. She said hello and paused for a moment, biting her lip.
One of the other mothers on the team was concerned that our team had lost every game. So concerned that she reached out to the…
