“Obviously, look at him, it’s a lot of fun. Everyday you get to do something that is different from previous.
Being a dad is almost like being a coach. You got your athlete and you care about them deeply. And it’s about instilling a great environment for them, your athlete or kid. You try and make it challenging, but safe and fun, and in a loving environment right? To me it’s been really fun just doing that with him, and having the opportunity to spend everyday with him. I’m the stay at home dad right now. To see him develop everyday is truly mind blowing. Like I said, everyday is a little bit different. All of the sudden, he picked up a skill which is pretty neat to see, or he’s regressing in another way so trying to figure out how to get him back.
I think there’s a lot of analogy to coaching.
Being a parent is an incredibly fun and rewarding experience. It can also be a worrying one. You obviously want to sympathize things for your son or daughter. Just like being a coach, you can get distracted by what’s going on outside. You go to a playgroup, you hear ‘oh my son or daughter is doing this’ and you look at Flint and you’re like, ‘oh Flint’s not doing this right?’ Just like when you are coaching, you’re like, ‘oh they are training anaerobic alactic system or anaerobic lactic system, oh we haven’t touched that system quite yet.’ And then you start worrying you are not doing the right things right? At the end of the day, you have to have confidence in what you are doing, I think it’s been really fun thinking about that from a coaching context and putting it into a parenting context. ‘That’s okay that he’s not doing that right now, his skills acquisition may take a little longer in a particular area or it’s going to be quicker, but just making it contextual to him and his needs.
When you come to work, you generally know what’s ahead of you. You walk in, you’re going to have a pile of emails, you’re trying to work towards a bigger goal. Here you don’t know, this morning he slept in right, you try and establish a routine but he slept in. So that ruins his nap time, his feeding time. Everyday is something different which is fine, I think it’s really exciting. Again, it’s just really neat to see.
Roanna, she said this, she didn’t think it was possible to love someone more each day, but you really do. His character and his personality is really coming out everyday, that’s the exciting part for me.
What’s been different, is it really hammers home how you have the professional side and your personal family side. Your priority shifts pretty quickly and that’s okay. That’s been an interesting transition too.
Make sure that they have the support that they need, and the love in the room. And that your character remains the same. You become really aware of your own actions. They pick up things just as athletes do. So my posture, my attitude, how I’m treating him and other, you recognize really quickly with him is that if I act a way where I don’t want him to act, and it’s not good for business right. Just making sure that I’m setting an example, I’m modeling the way, just like you would in coaching or personal training. That’s been pretty fun from a personal development standpoint.
Authenticity is a word that’s thrown around a lot, but if you are authentic in what you are doing, behaving and acting, that’s the critical thing. I think as a parent that’s the most important thing.
We’ll go hike, getting exposed to things I enjoy and Roanna enjoys, which sounds really selfish but those are the things that are really important to us is to be outside. Or be around people, or to learn and grow. So that’s been fun to go out, we’ll go hike in the North Shore, we’ll go run around our neighborhood, we’ll go to play groups. It’s almost like you’re a tourist in the city, we’re going to Science World, the Aquarium and going to places that I’ve never been to. It’s totally fun too when you go out in the woods, and you’re going slower, and instead of trail running you go slow, and it’s amazing when you go slow, what you actually see. Then you realize we are very fortunate to be able to live in this place right? That’s been pretty fun too.
Your sleep gets a little bit compromised. But just imagine your favorite client to work, that client is overcoming something or that’s challenging you but you see them grow and develop and now it’s starting to do things. Look, he’s ready to go and explore, and sleep. Seeing his improvement, it’s cool to see.”
– Blake Dalton, Canoe Kayak BC Provincial Coach.