Are you crushing your child’s dreams?
Tim Tebow has had his share of ups and downs. Whether or not you are a fan, you cannot help but appreciate his determination to overcome opposition and stick with it, even though he’s not the QB star he was in college. I love this commercial he made a couple of years ago: What fuels you?
If Tim had listened to the naysayers, he wouldn’t be in the NFL right now. What do you think his parents parents were saying to him when everyone else was saying “you can’t“? What do you say to your kids when someone tells them they can’t? It is inevitable that someone will crush your kid’s dreams, disguising it as “reality.”
Whether it’s music, sports, acting, writing, or becoming president of the United States. Parents sometimes do the dream-crushing too–with the best of loving intentions, of course. After all, we’re just trying to protect our kids from disappointment, right? Tim Tebow used the opposition to fuel his determination. And that may work for a lot of kids. But don’t be the dream-killer for your children in hopes of motivating them to work harder.
Life will do enough dream-crushing on its own without parental help. Let them dream. Let them have high hopes. When my son was little, he wanted to be the next Dan Marino. He’s 22 now. He played D3 college football, as a backup. He doesn’t care about being Dan Marino anymore. When graduates this spring, he will follow a career he loves, helping others. But that childhood dream of being like Dan started him in a direction that has shaped the man he is today.
I’m sure he would have been a different person if we’d made him face reality: “Um…the truth is, TJ, that you probably won’t ever be like Dan Marino. So don’t even bother trying. Sorry, kid.” But fortunately, we kept our mouths shut. We let life re-shape his dream.
Will you let your child dream big?
