Share Your Passions and Connect.

One thing I am extremely passionate about is football. I find it interesting that not too long ago my wife expressed her displeasure that our son has not yet learned to catch a football. As a father, I have chosen not to have expectations that my son will enjoy all the same things that I do.

I believe we can naturally connect through the sport without it being forced. He is at an age where he finally watches games with me, but I do not expect that of him. We talk about the score and if he has questions, I answer them. Overall, he is not highly interested. However, he does know all of the football teams.

We have a friendly football pool with other family members and he gets to pick all of the games. We count how many wins and losses we have every week. We read graphs of who is winning and losing. He understands how much a touchdown is scored and how much they are worth. He understands a field goal is different than an extra point and is worth three points versus one. He understands offense and defense. He is excited when I tell him our team is playing and whether or not they won or lost.

More than watching the game, I enjoy the common interest of competition. He is a competitor and he likes to win. It is exciting to watch it unfold in his personality development. I have never told him that he needs to win, because nobody ever told me that I needed to win. He wants to win; it’s natural.

What I chose to focus on is the effort when playing anything, not the result. As a dad, it is exciting to see some of the same traits in my son. Seeing these traits comes from spending an immense amount of time with him. I appreciate them for what they are, not what I am telling him he needs to do.