Bruce Springsteen has three children: Evan, Jessica, and Sam. One of them is an Olympic-level equestrian (which can not have been a cheap or easy interest to encourage, nor always a fun one to watch). His son, Sam, recently became a New Jersey firefighter (a scary thought for any parent). Clearly, Bruce and his wife Patti have figured out how to help their children become who they are, and to realize their potential.
“I wanted them to see people that did a lot of other things,” Bruce once said in an interview, “be around people who would shape them and they would have a lot of options.” Perhaps his inclination to encourage them to pursue their dreams comes from his own experience. In his autobiography, Springsteen takes us back to when he was 7 years old and watched the controversial rockstar Elvis Presley’s appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. When Elvis walked off the stage, “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 understand who they really are deep down and guide them down the path to realizing their potential. How we do that, how we become the parents capable of doing that, is the whole premise behind The Daily Dad (still just $1.99 as an ebook!). The intention is to give you something every day to try, to consider, to improve upon as a parent. Because day by day, step by step, these things add up, just like it does for your child, as they journey to become who they really are.
That’s why we expose them to things, that’s why we let them find what interests them, and then we support those interests. That’s why we shouldn’t pressure, we shouldn’t criticize. That’s why we should show up, as Bruce did, to what must have been countless and very long and very hot horse shows. That’s why we should keep our worry to ourselves if they commit to something as selfless and courageous as being a cop or a fireman. If they choose something crazy—like being a musician or an athlete—we must remember the example of Jim Valvano’s father: Believe in them, cheer for them, be proud of them…and be ready to catch them if they fall or fail.
We must help them become who they are meant to become. We must help them realize their potential.
As we mentioned, The Daily Dad ebook is still on sale for $1.99! The book is designed for anyone who wants to get just a little better as a parent, no matter what stage of parenting they’re at. We don’t know when it will be this cheap again, so now is a perfect time to grab a copy if you don’t have one already, or gift it to a fellow parent you know. Or if you’re like us and prefer the smell and touch of a physical book, we have signed copies available over at the Daily Dad store!
