Monday, April 23, 2007

At one point during Mayweather/De La Hoya 24/7 last night, Floyd Mayweather discussed his father at length. He said that growing up his father rarely showed him real love, but instead showed him that tough love. The real love the son wanted was affection, or time spent together, but instead he got the tough love that involved extra hours in the gym and preparing his son to become a world class boxer. Now that the son is a world class boxer, he still doesn't feel the love from his father, and he also admitted that up until recently, he was scared of his father. So all of this got me to thinking, what's the line between tough love and just being hard on your kids. Do you get your kids to the point where they succeed not necessarily because they want to, but because they fear the reaction of their parents? Or do you pull back a little, try to show your kids consequences of right and wrong, and hope they see it for themselves. I will admit my father was pretty hard on my brother and I, and up until I graduated from college in '96, I was scared of him. Even now, he can flash me that look, and I'll immediately start replaying my last 30 minutes with him to make sure I did nothing wrong. But my father always took time to show my brother and I affection, and he would spend quality time with us every weekend..even when my parents were divorcing, he never stopped. Father/son relationships are very interesting to me, always have been, and as soon as I figure out what about them I want to discuss, I'll put it in a book.

By the way, I highly recommend that every two months or so, you spend the entire weekend in the house like I did this past weekend. I mean sure sports was the driving factor behind it, but so many other things got accomplished. I cooked, I cleaned my apt, I heard my loud ass neighbors playing reggae music (and i STILL don't know what the hell they are saying), I got lots of reading and writing done, and most importantly I am refreshed this fine Monday morning. No sluggishness, no dragging, just lots and lots of energy. I'll be able to enjoy the balmy weather next weekend, and the weekend after that.

3rd Bass - The Gas Face

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

How does the saying go..."anyone can be a Father but it takes a real man to be a DAD".....

Glad to here you got some things done. Happy Monday!!!

Miss. Lady said...

In being a mother I know I am strict and hard on my children. I have to condition myself not to be over bearing with them and to let them show me they know right from wrong.

Sounds like you feel pretty good today. Could you bottle some of it up and send it my way please?

Unknown said...

You gotta get on the UFC bandwagon Rashad! The free card on SPike this weekend was decent and the next PPV will be amazing - great excuse to head out with the boys and drink some beer and eat some wings. I was a huge boxing fan throughout college but over the past year I've switched over to the UFC.

Jo said...

Isn't it supposed to rain this weekend?

The only thing I wonder is what did the father do for the kid to be so afraid of him? That kind of fear is not natural. It's LEARNED. Somthing must have happened and something BAD for him to feel that way about his father.