As we get ready for another exciting year of the March Madness basketball tournament, I was thinking about the similarities of that tournament to parenting. From diaper dandies to feeling all the roller coaster of emotions, parenting and March Madness share a lot of qualities. Yes, I know that parenting doesn’t just happen in the month of March, but you will see the different connections that being a parent has to watching your favorite college team play for a championship.
Prepping Up For Your Biggest Day
As the date draws near, you feel as though you prepped up as much as you can. Whether it is painting the nursery or listening to every college basketball podcast, you are ready for this moment. You created a birthing plan with your spouse and you know exactly what you will do when the baby is ready to enter this world. In terms of March Madness, you revised your brackets over twenty times. You scrutinized each match-up in each division. At this point you are waiting on college basketball shows to call you up to analyze each game. You are the poster child for preparation.
March Madness & Parenting Are Playing With Your Emotions
When you become a parent and you hold your child for the very first time you are flooded with an abundance of feelings and emotions. The more you realize the weight of the situation in your parenting journey, the more you start to doubt yourself. That also happens during tourney time. You are so excited about this year’s new tournament. You look over your fool-proof bracket. This year will be different. Delusions of grandeur start to creep into your mind. You tell yourself that you are going to win your friends and family bracket challenge or earn bragging rights at work for beating your co-workers. Those dreams start to fade away when you already have a busted bracket as some Cinderella teams take out the teams you selected.
Building Character Through The Process
No matter what stage of parenting you are in, there will be times you will feel like a failure. Thoughts of letting down your child run through your mind like a fast break. Just know that because you are thinking about all the ways you could have done things better, it makes you a caring parent. As long as you try to show your kids that you love them, you will become a better parent through those moments. Obviously when it comes to picking out your March Madness bracket, things are a lot less intense. That is unless you are betting your life savings on your bracket which I highly don’t recommend at all for many reasons.
Yet, you can learn about yourself each year when you fill out a bracket. Did you trust your instincts? Was there a moment you let others guide your team selections for each round? The more you trust your instincts the better you will be in making your own path. The wins will start stacking up. Just as a Cinderella team knocks out a blue blood in college basketball, you will have unpredictable moments where your kids surprise you by overcoming adversity or acting in ways you never expected. Those moments are partly from your guidance and teaching them about life. So good luck this year in filling out your bracket and I wish you success in your parenting journey! Just remember that in March Madness there is “One Shining Moment,” but as a parent you will have many more than just one!