The phrase “live through your kids” is tossed around from time to time, and it’s almost always a bad thing, haha. When I say it, I refer to things like giving them the same type of giddy and magical feeling that Christmas gave me when I was young so I can relive it through their experiences. Some people, though, are trying to use their kids to fill in the things in their life that they didn’t accomplish. It’s alright to give your kid the things you never had, but it’s not alright to make your kid do the things you weren’t able to do.
An easy way to see the difference is the kid’s confidence. An extraordinarily talented kid that lacks in confidence is having his confidence eroded by a perpetually unsatisfied parent. In my case, I don’t have any want or need to find the outer limits of my kid’s athletic abilities at a young age, because I’m not an athlete, nor is my wife, and kids that age who ARE genetically blessed have a natural knack for it that my kid just doesn’t. He’s just a regular kid in that department - with vast room to improve, and lots of discipline to gain, but clearly no desire to have his life become about a sport, or any single thing at this time in his life. Getting him better, always striving to be more actively involved and encouraging - those are things that can build his confidence. To try to push him to be something he’s not and doesn’t want to be - that would hurt him.
But yeah - totally agree about those videos. It’s hard to criticize, because I don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes, but with a lot of talented celebrities across all disciplines, you hear of some horror stories with the parents, and YT videos show us, rounded to the nearest whole number, 0% of the kid’s actual life. Hopefully there’s still some fun for them there.
