Are You a Good Parent? (VIDEO)
Welcome to paradise.
With each blog entry I try to provide help for new residents of Florida. I have lately been asked about raising children here and what might make it different than other places in the United States. There are more empty nesters in Florida on a per capita basis but, I think the real challenges lie in a changing society rather than the number of residents under 18.
Rocky learned something from his haters yesterday and it was eye opening. Honestly, I remember realizing I had haters when I was younger and the reason was straight up jealously. It's easy to come to that conclusion when you are older than 6 however, I was worried that Rocky would not realize he was doing so well in life because of how most kids are now raised. At school drop off in the morning you can hear the majority of parents telling their kids to 'be kind' as the last communique before they start their day. I was thinking recently that because parents are so focused on kindness that having a kid who can be criticized and then perform a very difficult task might be an opportunity that Rocky misses out on. Luckily, there are parents that are not raising their children to be kind.
And I thank them.
Quick update: With Rocky's focus on Skateboarding he has progressed immensely this year and can now 'drop in' from 9 feet. It's scary to watch. But the next thing he is working on is 'dropping in' then climbing an opposite wall while doing a 180 degree turn were his body is parallel to the ground. It can be heart stopping and some of our friends cannot even watch him practice. Yesterday, while Rocky was working on this new skill a couple of boys came over and told him he was going to fail. They had never met Rocky before and were older and bigger than him and certainly not trying to be 'folksy', they were just mean.
I couldn't be happier.
Rocky didn't even falter for a second, he stayed focused, was able to drop in and climb a painted wall; plus it looked like a trailer for an X Games competition. It's times like this you can actually feel the mental toughness being born in our son. Whatever he does in life, I want him to embrace those haters and get the job complete that he is working on. As I look back on my biggest accomplishments in life the majority of them is because I have been tough mentally, I think most people would find that as well.
So, in the final analysis, if you are raising one or more mean kids I would like to you to track us down at a Skatepark or any other location where Rocky is working on a new skill and criticize him. I promise it will help him get to the next level of challenges he has set out for himself. Thank you.
Comments
Post a Comment