brien evans wrote:
Eh. You're acting like they don't have moms that pushed them and took them to peewee football and got recruited/sponsored into club football. Or cousins or uncles. They didn't just show up to D1 colleges and the NFL.
Just because a certain population of our society doesn't like to raise their kids, doesn't mean those kids don't have strong influences around. Sometimes that influence is bad. Sometimes it's criminal. Hey, maybe that toughens them up more than a pushy dad.
They weren't great because their mom was some sports nut trying to prep their kid to go d1 at age 9. And thats not why they got noticed by coaches or recruiters either. Its because they, the athlete, wanted to participate and wanted to put in the work. Combine that with immense talent and you'll get attention. It has very little to do with parent over involvement. The vast majority of those athletes would say themselves that it was their parent's love and support of THEIR dream that made it possible for them to succeed. And thats the point that youre missing above all else, as a parent, you're supposed to want your kid to be well adjusted and successful in whatever they want to do, to the level that they want to do it at. "going d1" or "going pro" comes with serious individual sacrifice as well as quite a bit of genetic luck. Its not a parents job to force their kid to try and reach that moutain top, its a parents job to encourage whatever path their kid chooses, help them when they ask, and love them regardless. It really is that simple. You're doing no service to your kid or yourself by trying to raise a 4th grader with a "killer mentality".