Friday morning I woke up to some pretty heavy criticism about my post on Thursday. If you didn’t the post, I wrote about what it was like for me to watch my oldest son run Cross Country. Here it is – go on and read it if you haven’t – otherwise this post won’t make sense.
So, this is the nicely worded criticism I received via my Mom from a friend of hers who thoughtfully took the time to write:
Yeesh! So, how do I handle this type of criticism? Well, first off, can I just say ‘Dude! Someone besides my Mom read my blog! Score!‘
Okay, let’s see if the criticism is warranted. His first concern is that James might read this blog and see that I said he was slow. Well, that’s a valid concern. I would be beyond upset if James read the blog. It’s a concern for anyone that blogs about their kids, I guess.
I think that’s why you see a million blogs by women that have toddlers and not so many of women that have teenagers. Having said that I can’t imagine a scenario in which James would read my blog but I guess you never know. It is something to thing about.
My concern isn’t so much that he would see that I said he was slow…he knows that. They were literally taking the course down around him as he was finishing last week. I am concerned though that he might read the blog and think I said he didn’t have any heart. I feel like that accusation was way off. James absolutely has heart – that doesn’t mean he doesn’t need more. Heck, don’t we all need more?
But, I do see why the commenter thought that I said he didn’t have heart. I wrote that sentence about heart very poorly – ya know, like I write a lot of my sentences.
As far as why it upsets me to watch him at meets…It upsets me because it’s hard for me to see him struggle. It hurts me for him but I can assure you he does not know that it upsets me. My first words to him when I see him are always ‘Great job! I’m so proud of you!’ That’s what the coach told us to say so that’s what I say.
And plus, I am proud of him. I’m proud as heck of him! He didn’t quit, he doesn’t come off crying or complaining and mostly, I’m just so dang proud of how he handles practice.
Like I said in the post: ‘…without fail every time I pick him up from practice he is more relaxed, more confident, and more self assured than when I left him.’ How could I not be proud of that.
Seriously, this kid IS my heart.
Am I concerned that I sometimes write negative things about my kids on the blog? Yes. It could definitely come back to bite me. The only way I know how to blog, though, is honestly. And if you want to read blogs where the kids and the parents are perfect and nothing bad ever happens you can find them anywhere you want. For real, there are a million of them.
We struggle just like you do and I feel like it helps other people to read about those struggles.
‘What do you mean you say bad stuff about us sometimes?’
I appreciate the criticism and I definitely will be more careful about how I say things in the future.