Baseball season started for us tonight. My 9 year old is obsessed with it. He came home with an athlete’s high you only experience when you’ve had an amazing practice or game. He was talking a million words a minute, telling me about his hits, his catches, & the positions he gets to play in the first game. He couldn’t stop talking about his coaches or his teammates & he then said to me, “Mom, I’m so proud of how tonight went.” It made me so excited to see him so excited!
As we continued talking, I said to him that I hadn’t seen him this pumped about a practice in any of the sports he plays & he got this sheepish grin on his face then said to me, “If I had to choose a sport that’s my favorite…. Mom, don’t be offended, but it would be baseball first & then basketball second.” I told him I’m thrilled for him he has found something to love & basketball doesn’t have to be his favorite even though it was mine.
I don’t ever want my kids to think because I loved [fill in blank] that they have to love that thing too. Did you know that 70% of kids quit sports by the age of 13. Obviously, this can be for a variety of reasons but a lot of times it’s because they didn’t have ownership of the sport they were playing (click the linked article to read more.) I don’t ever want to be the parent whose kids do a sport or activity because they are more worried about disappointing me than they were actually enjoying themselves.
It is my job in this life to open doors so that they can find their own passions, have their own journey & fall in love with this life in their own way. Not my way. He loves baseball, my daughter loves ballet. Neither of those things have ever been in my scope of life experience, but I approach both of those activities with the same level of passion that my parents gave to me for the sports I loved as a kid. And that’s the way it’s supposed to be right??
So, dream on L, O & S. Find your passions at all ages, go through life seeking them out with a thirst & hunger that will prevent you from stopping. Today, at the age of 9 & 6, it’s baseball & ballet. Who knows what it will be in 10, 20, or 30 years?? But don’t stop looking for it. I will be there cheering you on every step of the way.
What is something your kids are passionate about??? Were you the same or different when you were their age???
Leave a Reply