Golf is one of the most fun games you can play, but did you know it may also help you with your parenting skills?
Many parents report golf as an island of calm in a sea of chaos. Raising kids requires patience, planning, and understanding how you may struggle with moments outside of your control.
Let’s take a look at what golf teaches parents like yourself.
Table of Contents
Focus on Each Individual Shot
Golf demands absolute concentration on every shot, starting at the tee box, moving through the fairways, and over onto the greens. You can’t think about the greens when still at the tee box. Parenting is the same way. From the moment your child is born, you must take each moment as it comes and take your child through every stage.
You can go through each stage one step at a time, like golf. Parenting is a wonderful art; you should enjoy the moments with your children at every stage. Please don’t ruin it by focusing on college when your child is two weeks old and in diapers.
The Value Goes Beyond the Score
You can easily focus too much on the score and lose sight of the game. Like in parenting, playing a bad round of golf shouldn’t ruin your love for the game. President William Howard Taft was known for his total and unrelenting obsession with golf.
He was more obsessed with it than any other president in American history, yet he was also—at the same time—the worst golfer in presidential history. It was his love for golf that mattered, and he tried at every golf swing.
The point is, don’t let the “score” ruin your love for parenting. You don’t have to be the best—you just have to try your best. You will see parents who seem to do much better at it than you, and that’s fine.
The main point is that your child has someone who loves them and wants the best for their future.
Give Yourself Time to Review
Please don’t talk about the last round of golf right after you played it. Give yourself 24 hours to think about it and contemplate. The same rule works well in parenting because, in the moment, you may struggle to see how you should have responded.
Getting feedback and understanding how to respond takes time, and you want the emotional fog to clear before you attempt to learn from it.
Remember: Your words can impact your child for the rest of their life. You must take the time to consider your actions before you rush on to the next. Weigh everything carefully.
You Can Always Improve
Golf never stops offering you things that you can improve upon. One moment, you need to work on your striking technique, but the next moment, you must work on your posture. Don’t despair if you struggle with a bad habit. Practice until you overcome it. You could even improve just by buying a better golf club set.
Like with golf, in parenting, you may speak too loudly or jump to conclusions that hurt your child. Don’t beat yourself up over these things, but do your best to overcome them.
Final Thoughts
Golf shares many applicable skills with parenting, and you can use golf to become a better parent. Taking a break from the course can also bring you back to parenting refreshed so that you will be a better parent. We hope you enjoyed How Playing Golf Can Help with Parenting Skills.
