Watching Without Critiquing

“I love watching you play.”

–     From a blog I first saw in 2012, by a guy, ironically, named Steve Henson

It’s a sports weekend, and were The Middle’s arm not broken, we’d have about 7-8 different games across The Three.

I love watching them play.

And, as coach and teacher and leader / manager, at first it was very, very difficult for me to manage well the ride home.

But I tried it.  And it works.

Sometimes, The Eldest thinks it’s “awkward” when I tell her I love watching her play soccer, or singing (technically “listening,” I know, but the theory holds, dang it!), but I do, and it’s better than dissecting the performance.  (By the way, I checked.  There is no Berlitz or Rosetta Stone foreign language program to teach a father to speak “13-Year Old Girl,” or any of its dialects…but I digress…)

Sometimes, as difference makers, we have to believe that the people in our charge — children, partners, employees and customers — really do want to improve every day, and therefore, sometimes, we ought to just step back and watch them play.

And find a way to love it.