Growing up I never quite understood why my father was the way he was with me/us that was not until I became an adult and a parent myself.

My time then as a child and my children’s time now requires a different type of teaching mainly because what my children are up against today is so much more than what I had to deal with back then. I have become that parent who is forever pushing my children to go beyond what they are comfortable with. Staying in that zone where everything seems easier and more familiar causes them to become complacent and relaxed we live in a society where “everyone is doing it” so why not travel down the path that is most popular?

I/ we are having to help them both understand that going along with the mass is not the way to go and in order to get to certain levels they should be ok with going against what everyone is doing.

My 21 year old has a brain that surpasses what is regular and his brilliance flows past time and space, no I’m not saying that because he is mine. It’s actually true, somewhere along the way though he has gotten comfortably lazy as these modern day young people get and as such I am now forced to be the  ‘bad guy’ as I force him to reset and see past where he is at now.

We know what he is capable of and because of this we demand more, we expect more so though there are moments in time where he will see me as being too harsh or the enemy, I am absolutely ok with that because he will not become what people call our young black men ‘a statistic’. He is more than that, worth more than that stigma and so daily I push him like my father did me/ us.

My encouragement to other parents out there who are wondering if they are doing the right thing, yes you are. You are well within your rights to be that Motivator, that Pusher, that one who tells them the ugly truth even if it means being unpopular at the moment for in the end it pays off just don’t stop.