I had dinner with two of my favorite baseball moms, tonight. For many years our sons have played baseball together and we have sat in the stands cheering the boys on and sharing the details of our worlds. Our nine inning therapy sessions have helped us be better parents - and cemented into lovely friendships. Now, one of the guys has dropped baseball, but once a baseball mom, always a baseball mom.
For the last three years these moms have relied on my middle school expertise to help analyze our kids' situations. Now, we find ourselves moving into high school - and we are totally on our own. We're all freaked out by how little we know about what our kids lives are going to be like in high school. Often you will hear one of us say, "When I was in high school..." but since that was over 25 years ago, that information is almost irrelevant.
Tonight we were all full of worries about these boys, who have so many strengths, but they're human (thank goodness) so they have weaknesses as well - and we found ourselves questioning our parenting techniques and the resulting outcomes. Never have I felt a mastery of parenthood...but I was hoping that with my oldest at 14 I would be feeling more sure of myself as a parent.
Hence, my newest reading material: Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom. I'll let you know if I decide to change my whole approach.
Yielding to Circumstances
11 hours ago
I think staying calm and confident about your relationship with your son will guide you through a lot. Stay in touch with the other moms. That will help too. I doubt your new reading will give you much to lean on, but it is worth reading nonetheless, if only to help define who you are and who you're not. I hope you can find something useful in it.
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