A Tough Dad Moment

I almost had a terrible dad moment this week. Lindsey came to me on Sunday night and told me that Logan was afraid to tell me that he does not want to wrestle. He saw the sign-up paper, and that I put it in the family calendar, and he knew he was running out of time to tell me. 

I am not going to lie, when Lindsey told me, I was a little mad. I was mad that he did not want to tell me. I was mad that he did not want to wrestle. I was mad….I don’t know, I was just mad. Then I thought about it, and realized that Logan had to be making himself almost sick worrying about me being disappointed. Ugghhhh. That made me more mad. Did I give him the impression that I would love him less if he did not wrestle? If that is the case, then I failed as a dad. 

So the next morning, while he was getting ready for school, I asked him if he wanted to talk to me about anything. He played kind of dumb, and I finally said “did you want to talk to me about wrestling?” And he just let it all out. “Dad, I do not want to wrestle this year, I just really love baseball, basketball, and football, and I want to do those. I liked wrestling at first, but last year it was not as fun, and I just did not like doing it.”

I took a deep breath, and I told Logan that I was not mad, that I was sad because I do love wrestling, and really hoped he would love it too. Then I told him that he never has to be afraid to tell me something like this, that even if I am mad or sad, that I will always love him, and support him. He gave me a hug, and then I had to tell him to get moving because the bus would be coming soon.

The more I thought about it though, the more the signs were there. I thought Logan liked going to tournaments and wrestling, but I think he just liked spending the day with me. It was just us two doing our thing, and I think he loved that. As the season came to an end, I also could tell that he did not really want to go to practice. I decided at that point to not enter him into anymore tournaments and give him a break. The thing I should have realized is that he is never like that about the sports. He is always excited for practice. So yeah, his heart was definitely not in it. 

Yeah, it sucks. I am hoping that maybe he takes a year off and changes his mind next year or down the road.