SCRABBLE: Teach Your Children Well
None of my children are avid scrabble players. That’s okay. My dad played Pinochle and my mom still plays Maj Jong and I never became a devotee of either of those games.
Ever since I became a ‘scrabble freak,’ playing as often as I do and taking on the role of a scrabble club and tournament director, I always imagined that I would find a life partner who shared my passion for the game and we’d bingo off into the sunset. And even though the game brought me together with dear people, my illusion was just an illusion.
Each and every one of us is different and yet, each and every one of us is alike. We each have our preferences, we all have our strengths and frailties. Some of us like red, while others prefer blue; and even though I abhor canned tuna fish, it remains a leading staple food around the globe.
As parents, we sometimes have visions with very specific goals for our children. Some parents adopt severe regimens, holding their children’s feet to the fire, pushing their children to become a success in a given field. And often, in spite of a successful ‘end result,’ people like Andre Agassi share their unhappiness as a result of being pushed.
In my opinion, too many parents, take the other extreme. Those folks provide little to no direction, expecting schools and teachers and life experiences to lead their children to some positive result.
The best answer most likely lies somewhere in the middle, serving up choices to the kids and imploring the youngsters to choose.
You can lead a horse to water, but . . . . . . . . .
And all the while that we parents are attempting to transform our child into a plumber or teacher or doctor, they will be best served when we also make certain that they are steeped in ‘real life’ lessons about day to day living. They will most often subtly pick up on lessons about character and relationships by watching the examples that we set for them, by the way in which we live our lives and interact with people.
It might be nice to share a competitive game of scrabble with my son or my daughters, but that would steal time aways from the hugging and kibitzing and learning about their passions.