The Overzealous Dad ... ?

I recently bought my son a pair of ice skates. He is two. I always said I would never be that dad that pushed his loves or past yearnings for life onto his children but I still bought him skates at the age of two. I suppose I am guilty of the cardinal sin of fatherhood; pushing sport onto my child with the expectation of greatness.

I was never good enough at hockey for it to take me anywhere in life. I am good but not good enough, period. I blame this (in my mind) on the fact that I did not start playing until late in life. I found hockey on my own. It was not pushed onto me by my father or anyone else. Using my tilted logic I can only assume that I never became as good as I could have been because there wasn't someone there forcing me to go to 5 am practice at the age of 8.

I want better for my son. I stealthily have engrossed him in hockey since he was born and he likes it already. He regularly asks me to play hockey with him on the front porch or on the sidewalk (he has a net and a bunch of sticks and everything) and of course I oblige as much as I can. This has encouraged me to step outside of what was my initial philosophy of just letting it happen. I am now a full fledged Tiger Woods dad in waiting. I am going to strap those skates on his feet and introduce him to ice this year and let it happen gradually. Once he gets the hang of it I am going to make it a weekly event of taking time to go skating. You know the old father son time routine of disguising skill building as fun time with dada just like my dad did with baseball (only with a lot less yelling and more positive encouragement as apparently that is more effective ... who knew).

Yes I know it is a sickness but think about it. What if Tiger Woods dad never pushed and pushed? What if Troy Crosby never set up a faux ice rink in the basement for his son? What if the Mannings weren't put through backyard passing drills? What if Joe Jackson never forced his sons to practice chords until their fingers bled? Okay bad example. Looking at that again really bad example but hey we aren't all perfect and yes there are downfalls to the philosophy but if you can find a philosophy without a potential downside let me know about it please.

The world really is a better place with crazy fathers pushing their children to be great. Sports don't just teach physical toughness but also mental stability and snap decision making. Maybe we should thank all of those crazy dads for being so tough on their sons. These somewhat unbalanced egotistical men can be teachers for all of us young fathers who want greatness for our children.

Pushing your children to succeed through hard work and practice; whether sports or in other arenas of life such as music, what say you?  Where do you think this urge to breed success comes from? Is it just the male ego projected down through generations or is it something else? I just know that I want a better existence for my son professionally. My life is great at home and I wouldn't change it, but professionaly speaking, I would much rather be doing something more exciting to earn money. I don't want my son to have to sit at a desk for his career unless that is absolutely what he wants out of life. I want him to have an option for something different.