My two boys started gymnastics again the other week after it had been off for 3 months while they moved premises.
The youngest was straight in there in week one.
But the eldest gets very nervous about things and wasn’t up for it.
He’d agreed to watch for the first week and that he’d join in one week two.
So I didn’t force the matter.
Week two came last Wednesday.
And he wasn’t up for it.
I know he loves it when he gets going and it was just the nerves stopping him joining in.
And we’d made an agreement.
So I forced him.
Literally had to drag him from the car, rip the school clothes of him and force him into his gym gear, despite the fighting, tears and begging me not to make him.
Shoved him through the door and into the main room.
And then spent the next ten minutes questioning if I’d done the right thing and feeling like a horrible daddy.
He then came out for the toilet and said “I’m loving it daddy. You were right to make me do it”
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Sometimes in life we have to make the hard decisions.
And follow through on them.
Others may fight them.
There may be arguments.
Even tears.
But they’ll thank you one day.
If you have kids that don’t want to eat healthily, I know how hard it can be to make that happen when the rest of the world seems to conspire against it.
Food marketers and well meaning others constantly exposing them to stuff that’s no good for them.
If your colleagues insist on trying to force cake and biscuits into you on a daily basis, we know it’s not easy to get them to stop.
If the other half insists on bringing crappy takeouts / ready meals / crisps / chocolate coated sugar bars / alcohol home, we appreciate it will be hard to change that.
But, who else is going to change these things?
Sometimes in life, you need to step up to the plate.
To do the thing you know to be right even when everyone else tells you otherwise.
It won’t be easy.
But it’ll be worth it.
And they’ll thank you one day 🙂
Much love,
Jon ‘My two boys are going to be my Best Men at my wedding’ Hall and Matt ‘The Stag Do better not be in a soft play centre’ Nicholson
