I Got It!

My son has played sports on and off in his life. He's pretty good at anything he attempts, but does it half-heartedly. You never see that fire in his eye or see him practicing in his spare time. Going to practice always seems like an inconvenience. He gets that from me. He's just not that in to it. He'd rather shoot baskets in the neighbors driveway or play baseball in the field using cans for bases than be on a team.

My daughter on the other hand has just started playing sports this school year. Volleyball. All her life we offered for her to play soccer or do cheerleading, softball, gymnastics....not interested. She's always said she would wait until she could play volleyball and that's what she would play.

Now my daughter lives and breathes volleyball. She can't wait for practices and especially for games. Every evening she begs her Dad to take her outside to practice. After that, she comes inside and hits the ball up the stairs, waits for it to bounce back down and hits it again. This will go on until we force her to stop. During games she's in the zone. Total focus in her eyes and she's ready to play.

My point here is that I see that compulsive personality in one of my children, but not in the other. My daughter has always been more like her Dad than my son. We've known that since birth. That's not a bad thing. The intensity my daughter has for something she's interested in is great. It's what makes winners. It's what makes leaders. It's also a trait found in many addicts.

My goal with my daughter is to keep her intensity focused on the positive. If sports, particularly volleyball is that positive, then so be it. I've said since she was born that if she could use her energy for good she would be a great person. I've been educating my children about substance abuse and addiction since they were small. I'm letting them know they have the gene coming from both sides of their families and that they must always be aware of it.

It's funny how genetics works. I see a little of both my husband and myself in both our kids, but there's no doubt that the boy has the genetics of my Dad and me, and the girl is all from her Dad's gene pool.