A lot of parents will do anything for their kids, except let them be themselves.
—Banksy
In his autobiography, Bruce Springsteen takes us back to when he was seven years old and he watched the rock star Elvis Presley’s appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show: I sat there transfixed in front of the television set, my mind on fire. I had the same two arms, two legs, two eyes; I looked hideous but I’d figure that part out. . . . So what was missing? THE GUITAR! The next day I convinced my mom to take me to Diehl’s Music on South Street in Freehold. There, with no money to spend, we rented a guitar.
Our job as parents is not to mold our children into our successors or into superstars. It’s to help them be what they are meant to become. We expose them to things, we let them find what interests them, and then we support those interests. We shouldn’t pressure; we shouldn’t criticize. We should believe in them, cheer for them, be proud of them . . . and be ready to catch them if they fall or fail on the path to becoming who they are meant to be.