If You're Going To Be There, Then Be There
Saw this tweet yesterday...
And right away I thought two things:
1. Who gives a shit what Ursula Burns thinks?
2. Ursula Burns is right... You don't have to go to ALL your kids' games.
Then I read the full article just to find something that might infuriate me, and, sure enough, I found it.
As the interview went on, the author dropped this gem...
Even when she attended a game, she (Ursula) didn’t watch “every second” of it. Instead, she used the time to relax and do a crossword puzzle.
And that's where I took umbrage... I may have even uttered the c-word since nobody was within earshot.
Look… Raise your kids however the fuck you want. Each one is different and each one requires different parenting in order for them to unlock their full potential.
HOWEVER… As a father of 3 who has spent countless hours both coaching and being in the audience at my kids' competitive events, NOTHING is worse for a youngster than to look for his parent in the stands after he hits a 3 pointer, or catches a fly ball, or makes a tackle, or hits a bullseye, or sinks a putt, or clears a hurdle, or captures their opponent's king, or nails a dance move, or hits a high note, or whatever the fuck kids do… And when they look up, their mom or dad is face down in a game of WORDLE.
It's no secret that 90% of the parents don't want to be there, but we have to at least feign interest, so our little ones do not turn into serial killers.
I used to coach a kid whose dad would drop him off and then go sit in his car and fiddle on his phone for the length of the game, and then some. He was the last kid to be picked up, and you could tell it broke his little fucking heart… As a result, it broke my plaque-laden heart, and, as yet another result, I wanted to break the dad's jaw on a fucking curb.
So I can only hope that when Mrs. Burns eventually begs for her kids to not put her into the nursing home with abusive staff members and loose diapers they aren't too busy playing Angry Birds to heed her request.
Because that would be a real shame.
I don't give a fuck if you run a deli or a Fortune 500 company… You don't have to go to everything, BUT if you're going to be there, then fucking be there.
Take a report.
-Large