Scott Cacciola has a nice profile on Olli Hoare in today's New York Times. It starts with the the following.
Scott Cacciola wrote:
For nearly 15 hours, Olli Hoare leaned his head against an airplane window and pondered his future. It was the summer of 2016, and Hoare was flying to the U.S. with his mother, Kate, from Sydney, Australia.
Hoare had a track and field scholarship waiting for him at the University of Wisconsin, but the fear of the unknown was beginning to overwhelm him: Was it the right move? Did he want to spend the next four years so far from home? How would he manage on his own? Did he need a credit card? It was all too much.
During their layover in Dallas, Hoare informed his mother that he had changed his mind: He wanted to bail and head home to Australia. His mother urged him to weigh his decision.
“Think about the type of person you are,” she told him. “Are you going to turn away from this opportunity? Are you going to go home and think about what could have been? I’m not going to get in your way. I’m going to get a coffee.”
I LOVE that. It shows you how a parents should act.
You need to give your kids agency but also just not let them be totally foolish.
It reminds me of how Sage Canaday's dad parented him when he ran for me at Cornell. Sage HATED freshman year. Didn't run well or do well academically, the whole nine yards. He said he was all set to transfer but his dad told him, "Lots of kids struggle first year in college. You have to go back for 1 more semester. You can't just quit. If you don't like it after 1 more semester, you can do what you want."
Sage thrived as a sophomore - athletically, academically, socially - and the rest was history.