The last few days I have been thinking a lot about a story in one of the book Life Is What You Make It. The story is about a boy who did not feel inspired by his dad. And I recognize so much in that story. The boy tells that he and his dad played ‘play catch’ with each other, but that his dad never let him catch the tenth ball. It’s a similar feeling I have as I had the feeling I could never win from my dad, not with anything, even though one day I was able to win from him with chess, but it was only once.
It is so easy for a dad to ‘always win’, to never let his son catch the tenth ball. But the effect can be dramatic.
The boy from the story and also I know that our dads of course meant well, had their reasons to be so hard on their sons. I guess they wanted to harden their sons, prepare them for life or so.
But same like the boy in the story, I still have the feeling i can never win, although I am working hard now to get over that. And that’s also the story of my life, that I ‘never won’.
So yes, time for me to get over that, but please dads, be careful. Maybe better inspire in a positive way, like ‘You can do it!’ and let your son catch the ball, maybe a difficult ball, but make sure he catches it.