I’m sorry, This is a semi serious note. Can someone explain the value of teaching a child that they are and will never be good enough? I bet that creates well adjusted, successful, people. The kind of people who’s successes allow them to have their complex, deeply rooted, personal issues be treated by the very finest psychoanalysts. I understand that the reason many parents feel the need to push their kids so hard is because they have a need, consciously or subconsciously, to live vicariously through the successes of their children. So, instead of encouraging their happiness, mom and dad get them out on the football field every free minute of the week, running drills until their kids despise the game they once enjoyed playing. Why do mom and dad feel the need to do this? Because, dad never became the football star he wanted to be and mom’s life isn’t any closer to what she dreamed then his. Now, 40 years down the road, all that bulk he spent every day building in his high school gym has turned withered and flobbed and into something a lot less impressive and she isn’t the prom queen she used to be. Finally, one day, they wake up. He looks around his dehumanizing, florescent lit, cube and her at their middle class, beige, suburban box and they both realize, all at once, that their dreams will never be anything but that. All they have left is the hope that if they push hard enough, maybe they can salvage those dreams in their children. But isn’t sad now, mom and dad? The game isn’t quite as enjoyable as it once was.

Do what you want, do what makes you happy, and let everyone else look on with envy when they realize the treasures you posses are the kind they will never afford.