Dudes! Monday. MONday. MONDAY! My
cover reveal happens on MONDAY! I am very excited about this. It makes me want
to cheer and dance and sing. I believe I shall do all three.
*cheers*
*dances*
*sings and sings and sings*
I hope you’ll stop by one of the
participating blogs and say hi.
On a different subject, I want to
talk for a minute about children and sports, and how it’s possible to sabotage
a child’s chance for success.
As a parent, I want my kids to do
well in their sport of interest. Be that sport basketball, soccer, chess, art,
or basket-weaving. I want them to get to do that thing, or play that sport, as
often and as well as they can. And I want them to be happy doing it.
To me, that means cheering for them
when they do well. And perhaps offering pointers when they don’t. Pointers
being constructive criticism of the non-damaging variety. As in: Hey, that was
a great shot you took. Maybe next time you can try doing it like…xyz. It does
not now, nor will it ever mean yelling profanities, or screaming about what
they’ve done wrong or uttering, yelling, or even thinking, the word, “Boo.”
And yet. I know a lot of parents who
do. I sit in the stands and hear them booing their kids, and their kids’
teammates and the coach and the referees. And then they start back on the kids.
These people do this from the position of sideline spectator, in the presence
of other parents and spectators.
I hear them booing their kids and
glare at them, and on occasion, manage to restrain myself from punching those
parents. Because I believe that booing a person will never, ever, ever, ever
help them improve anything. It will never make them better. Ever. Ever. Ever.
But it will destroy their self confidence, and possibly sabotage their ability
to continue.
I am the parent who yells and cheers
and screams for the good things players do, whose goal is to build them up and
make them love to play, regardless of whether they win or lose. (And it’s
possible I’m the parent who is gaining a reputation for giving the death glare
to the above-mentioned spectators. Because, seriously, who would want to keep
playing while their own parents are up there booing them off the field?)
The point is, I challenge you all to
resolve to be that person (parent or not) who always cheers for the good things,
and never boos the mistakes. To my knowledge, booing has never helped anyone.
Thanks for listening. Off my soapbox.
See you Monday!
