Patience is a virtue...to heck with that!

Strolling out to the first tee today with my driver in hand and the sun beaming down on me, I felt the calm sereneness of the good life as I hit a drive straight and true that landed about 240 yards down the fairway. Yeah babeeeee Yeah!!!

And then my ten year old got up to hit.

Now, keep in mind that Caleb has played a total of two times “officially” in terms of hitting every shot until it is in the hole for multiple holes. But, after he hits his drive and it goes about 50 yards along the grass with enough air under it to fit a piece of paper, he drops his shoulders and is already pouting.

Good grief. Where’s Earl Woods when you really need him, right?

I know I am a competitor, I know I have instilled fire in these boy’s bellies when it comes to games, be it sports or even the video game type. But then again—I see sometimes that failure at this age is not an option, and patience in practice is something that is as foreign as girls to them. As we were playing with my father-in-law and his cousin who both were avid golfers, I was a bit nervous that Caleb’s attitude even from his very first shot would become old quick.

So, what transpired in me trying to help Caleb went a bit differently than what I anticipated. Caleb did in fact listen to all of the help that everyone was giving him throughout the day, including slowing himself down and not trying to hit the heck out of the ball. But the difference is that then he took this “slowing down” thing to what I thought was an extreme, taking three and four practice shots, lollygagging up to the ball, and basically slowing play down altogether. So, quickly, my patience became next to nil and it was me who was acting like the 10 year old getting upset with the boy and trying to hurry him up and quell the masses of carts that were forming a line behind us.

We only played nine, and by the time we got to the seventh, I had realized the error of my ways and basically let Caleb do as he needed to, only offered him advice when he asked, and he played very well the last three holes. And guess what—after starting off horribly overall (I couldn’t have made a putt to save my life!), I finished par bogey par.

Gee, who woulda thunk it, right?

TAGS: Dads, Father Son Events, Fatherhood, Fathers, Golf, Humor, Parenthood, Parenting, Parenting Styles, Patience, Raising Children, Sports
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