My Son, a Football and a Lesson

Who all really tunes into their kids? I mean really learn from them? They are so smart and can teach us so much. Here is a little story about my oldest son and what I learned about him yesterday.

Because it was a gorgeous day, I took the kiddos to the park. After a walk, Zed and I decided to throw a football. I have always told him that he wasn't really cut out for either baseball or football. He gets so frustrated and literally throws a fit when he can't throw a ball or catch it right. Poor child is a computer whiz and not really into sports or the outdoors for that matter.

So I thought...

Yeah, I thought. To my surprise I discovered that my son can throw a football! I was amazed and it just kept getting better. Here is what happened...

I would throw the perfect throw to him. I mean it would go right to him and he would attempt to catch it with his fingers. I tried to explain to him that he needs to catch with his hands and arms. This is not baseball and you dont have a mit. His poor little fingers would get hurt trying to catch and I was throwing as soft as possible.

Then it got to where he couldn't catch the ball at all. He was getting furious, so he gave up. Here comes my uppity, sports fanatic little boy, Jorli. This kid can throw anything; just hand it to him. :) He loves baseball, football, any ball lol.

He was throwing the perfect throws and I would high five each and everyone of them. He was rocking the ball and I saw that his oldest brother was getting mad. I explained to him that he throws well, he just needs to lose the attitude a little and calm down. He then took over again and Jorli resumed his bouncy car adventure with his sister.

Zed was doing really well and finally he threw the most perfect throw. I smiled and cheered him on with a high five. Then when he started throwing flemsy throws again, I would say "nice try but try better". He was getting angry but gearing his anger towards perfection. This is what I noticed...

He would say, "I am going to throw this one over your head Mom". When he threw the ball, it did go over my head but I caught it. I smiled and said, "see there, the perfect throw". He would do it again and again and if he messed up, he would fuel his frustration towards perfection.

Kids are wonderful and they can inspire us in so many ways. My little boy taught me something, because I stayed intuned with him and was able to see that he wanted to be the best. He used his frustration to try harder. That is admirable!