Parenting Truths No One Says Out Loud | Let’s Get Real Ep. 25

Parenting isn’t content. It’s real life. It’s loud, messy, exhausting, and worth every ounce of you. In this episode of Let’s Get Real, I talk honestly about back-to-school chaos, youth sports pressure, and the money choices that actually build a family you’re proud of. We get into why “perfect parent” is a trap, how to use the 18 summers mindset without panicking, and what coaching football keeps teaching me about raising boys who become solid men.

In this episode:

• The lie of perfect parenting and what to do instead
• Youth sports as a classroom for character, not clout
• Coach less, cheer more, and let kids be kids
• Spending with values so your money matches your priorities
• How to quiet the survival voice and make better decisions

Watch the full video: https://youtu.be/tg44sMFwSyM

Learn more: blackmammoth.com

Power Hour: Need clear, no BS answers on benefits, cash flow, and next steps that fit your real life right now? Book a focused session: https://www.blackmammoth.com/powerhour

If you want different outcomes for your kids, model different choices today.

If this hit home, drop a comment. Tell me where you're feeling it most. I read every single one.

New episodes every week on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. Subscribe so you never miss a real conversation.

Transcript

Parenting is hard, for real

Speaker 0:00

Parenting is hard, real hard. Actually. I saw that today from someone I follow on Twitter and, and John, you were like, parenting is really hard. It's tough. Boys went back to school today. I know when you see this, it won't be Monday, but they went back on Monday and we went out to lunch and we ran into some of our other friends having lunch and we all chatted about the same thing like Parenting's. Hard question was, did you enjoy? Them going back to school or were you sad shit, enjoyed it. Quiet, being able to do what you need to do and get it done. Not worrying about where they're at, um, kicking'em off, you know, their, uh, phones and stuff and making sure they're out doing stuff like. It just, it's just so difficult. But at the same time, we miss it At the same time, we, we focus on those memories and, and talk through it. So that's what today's about. Let's get real, let's get real about parenting. It's hard. It's real hard. Um, and I'm gonna go through a couple lessons that I learned this summer really. And what we're, my wife and I are going through, um, as the boys get older.'cause we just realized again, um, why it takes us long to remember that. But it, it did, uh, this will be their last year together in school until, um, high school where they only get a year left. So let's go into it. Why is parenting so hard? I really never understood that. Right. I never understood why it was so difficult for my mom to be around and do these things. And the, the more and the longer we go and the older the boys get. The realization of, we all feel like we need to be perfect, right? One, we don't wanna be like our parents, or we wanna be like some of what our parents did, but we want only the good parts, not the bad parts. And then we end up with our own bad parts. Um, I know that's, that's in there too. Because we're figuring it out. There is no book on it. I, let me back up. There's books on parenting. You don't know what you're getting into and get into it. And I know all of you listening that are, parents can understand that, but it's, it's like that battle, that battle of am I doing what's right? Are they, are we doing enough? Are we doing too much? Are we letting them be a kid or are we trying to develop them to be a better adult? Like all these jumbled mess comes into play and that's why we have to take the time. That when you do to recognize what's going on. And so that's what we did. Um, we had lunch today, nice Indian spot. I love me some Indian food, and we were just talking about how the boys, where they're at now, memories not going to school together anymore after this year. And it's just like, holy shit, things go fast. I know I've written and talked about this on a couple previous episodes of just overall recognizing the fact that you only have 18 years or 18 summers and you. The more you go through it, the more you recognize that and the, the, the following and the messaging and engagement I've gotten from that is amazing because everyone recognizes that. Like, Hey, let's do the memo list. Let's go on the vacations. Let's spend the money on the, the youth sports, which whew, we'll get to because Whew. Um, it's worth. The numbers, what we're taught to, to teach everyone from a financial perspective isn't that though They'll go spending all this money on the kids, put it into retirement, so you have your life, yada, yada, yada. To this day, I have not met one person who has kids that at the end of their life didn't tell me when I asked them. Like, Hey, would you have spent more time and money on your kids or put more into work in my retirement? And they all say the same thing, more into their kids, grandkids, et cetera. So think about that. I know parenting's hard. Some of you, a lot of, you're going it alone. Just hang in there. People are out there for you. We're here to help. But what's makes it even harder? Is these youth sports? Man, I, I know a post about it and I talk about it a lot. Um, as some of you know, maybe you don't know. Um, that I coach both tackle and flag for our boys. They're both in select soccer. We have sports five well. Technically could be seven days a week. Um, this fall, uh, I coach all day Sunday. Right? Um, I coach Tuesday through Friday, but I was talking to the other coaches the other day because this is our first year tackle, right? Fifth grade, which again spoken about too many times. But for all this Lincoln, it's his first tackle season. We were talking about how like teaching them their stances and cadence. What a play is. Formations, positions, how to catch a ball, how to run a ball, how to throw a ball. All of these things that you do at this level that it's a lot and we don't have enough time. Right? Three practices a week isn't gonna, isn't gonna get it done before the first game. And our coaches we were talking about of like our focus is like the development over the year. At the end of the year, do they understand formations, positions, some concepts, et cetera? Because our job is just to then move them into the sixth grade where they can learn more and have these building blocks. And it's so funny because isn't that what we do as parents, but we don't think about it that way. Right? Our job as parents is obviously to keep'em alive to the best of our abilities, but to get them to be. An essential, amazing part of society and great adults when they are adults. And I'm not, I don't mean 18'cause we all know at 18 what we were doing more like 25, 26, right? Let's be real. But it's so funny how youth sports in parenting are so hand in hand, but we think about them differently, right? Sports are sports. They'll, we push them hard, we drive them. They need to try things. You know, rub some dirt on it type situations. But in parenting, we're a little, we're different than that. And I, I, I dunno Why, why is that? We're not, I think we're too hard on our boys. We recognize that this weekend. Uh, with, with Lincoln, and, and we'll be changing that so that way we're not coaching from the sideline that we are cheering, which is very, very difficult for us to do because we played at such a high level. And if you're not playing the right position or not knowing what you're doing, coaching stuff comes out. I know. I digress. But as youth sports go, youth sports are an integral part of any child's dream or any child's development as an adult later in life because of the lessons that they're learning. Because we're not doing that as much as parents. And the reason is we're not doing as much as parents is because we're flying around. With our head, our heads cut off trying to figure out how to parent, how to an adult, how to go through our own trauma and how to raise kids in a different way than we were raised in a different, um, society that's out there with more of the social media and, and our webs, et cetera. And we're fighting all of that. But that's okay. But I think we all should take that more philosophy of the youth sports and going back to the fundamentals, not teach'em how to walk'cause they shouldn't know how to walk by now, but them understanding the little fundamentals of life. And I know a lot of you're gonna say, well, that's like, that's when you're an adult. They need to know that later. Don't rob them of their childhood. I don't think that's true. I think if we're transparent and we teach'em as much as we can, it'll be in their fundamentals and it'll be in their base of who and what they are. But they can still be fun and have kid and be a kid. But if we don't. What are we doing? Are we truly setting them up for success or, or what? So it's my episode of let's Get Real Little Spin than we've been doing, but I just felt like the need to come on and, and, and discuss all of this. So till next time, keep it real.