026: Fatherhood odyssey: Homework struggles

Being a dad also means dealing with a lot of mundane little issues. Things like making sure your kids do their homework.

To be honest—I’m not big on homework myself. I was terrible at school. I don’t think school is a great preparation for life.

But I do strive to look at mundane little issues and ask: What’s an important life lesson that’s contained in here? What’s something meaningful that I can pass on to my sons?

Recently, my eldest son kept saying he’ll do his homework later. Inevitably, the day turned into night, with not enough time left to actually do the homework.

Not only did it mean he wouldn’t be able to present his homework, it also affected his little brother and me, because we didn’t get to spend some quality time playing together.

My eldest son very much comes after me. When he realizes that he failed at something, he can be very hard on himself.

On the one hand, I want him to set high standards for himself and strive to live up to them. On the other hand, I don’t want him to beat himself up. I want him to learn the lesson and use it to become a better version of himself. I want him to cherish his wins and learn from his mistakes.

In this episode, I’ll share

• how I dealt with my son’s homework struggles,
• how I deployed storytelling to teach him the importance of fulfilling your responsibilities
• how I shared my own challenges to help him have compassion for himself

Finding the right balance between self-discipline and self-compassion is a challenge I’ve been grappling with myself, so I’m not surprised to see this in my son. Hopefully, he’ll learn this much earlier than I did.

As always, I’d love to hear from you. Drop a comment here https://steliefti.com/fatherhood-odyssey-homework-struggles/