Kids always disappoint if we think about them too much! I think we have to be prepared for that and just go with the flow. Sounds annoyingly corny but I'm beginning to think, as I get older, that the really annoyingly corny advice is actually the best. My kids are all so bright, even the one with learning difficulties - his personality is bright, like a 100 watt light bulb! - that I think it's easy to get tangled up in what they 'might' achieve, given the right push. But kids are not for pushing, alas. The more you push, the more they resist and take up skateboarding instead or watching the Simpsons all day or ... well, you get the picture. Now I just do my best to answer their questions, nudge them in the right direction, then get on with my own life and career, trying not to watch too closely!
Scary stuff, being a parent. But I don't regret having kids, not any of them. Well, maybe there have been odd moments when I've thought 'why the hell did I ... ?' but in general, I try to remember that the more kids I have, the less likely it is I'll end up dribbling alone over my turkey sandwich at Christmas when I'm eighty. If I ever hit eighty. That sort of thing.
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Well it certainly was Not my son who is thinking of quitting the cross country/track team!
Kids always disappoint if we think about them too much! I think we have to be prepared for that and just go with the flow. Sounds annoyingly corny but I'm beginning to think, as I get older, that the really annoyingly corny advice is actually the best. My kids are all so bright, even the one with learning difficulties - his personality is bright, like a 100 watt light bulb! - that I think it's easy to get tangled up in what they 'might' achieve, given the right push. But kids are not for pushing, alas. The more you push, the more they resist and take up skateboarding instead or watching the Simpsons all day or ... well, you get the picture. Now I just do my best to answer their questions, nudge them in the right direction, then get on with my own life and career, trying not to watch too closely!
Scary stuff, being a parent. But I don't regret having kids, not any of them. Well, maybe there have been odd moments when I've thought 'why the hell did I ... ?' but in general, I try to remember that the more kids I have, the less likely it is I'll end up dribbling alone over my turkey sandwich at Christmas when I'm eighty. If I ever hit eighty. That sort of thing.
Bloody pests though sometimes, the lot of 'em.
Jx
Amen. And he still hasn't quit, though he likes to bitch about
it :0)
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