No such thing as Can't

My boy T has been srtuggling with balancing the demands of school and baseball. Until now, he's been a free spirit after school. Get your homework done, hang out with neighborhood kids, beg to play video games, do some chores - that was the life. Yesterday, he had a lot of reading to do - like fifty pages - and some spelling homework. He was an emotional mess when we arrived home. He had an hour before we had to get him to baseball practice, but chose not to dive into said homework. I suppose he was a bit distracted at practice because he was called out for looking at the ground while the coach was giving directions. He hadn't had much support from his teacher either - "School work is more important than baseball. Just get it done." He was in a world of hurt. In the end, he was up until 11 p.m. and was able to finish the spelling, but not the reading. I woke him up a half hour early, and he knocked out the rest of it. As I thought back on some of the tough homework experiences I had as an older elementary school student, I realized that these are things are going to stick with him. Not in a negative way, but in a formative way. You learn a lot about yourself when the work load increases. What he's going through is hard. He's got a few more of these moments coming, too. I know of a report that he'll be doing this year which is going to totally drop him to the ground. I'm not going to do it for him, he's going to have to do the work himself. It's good for him. You should've seen the look on his face this morning. He was blissful as he got into the car, knowing that everything was done. It was a moment to appreciate, and cherish. Smiles aren't as common as they used to be and I'm sure they'll get even less frequent as the years continue to march forward. Baseball won't last forever, and the pressure cooker will be off for a while. He's gaining something important, however, which I do believe will last a good long time. Self-confidence, knowing that he can do the work if he'll just stick with it, is priceless. He thinks everyone in the world is mean. I think everyone in his world likes him a lot, and wants to see him succeed as much as I do. That is a fantastic thing to realize as a parent. The boy is going to make it.