so that you can actually improve, and that this is part of resilience. But threatening and withholding affection isn't known for creating resilience, either.
My friend was calling me from a parking lot in Brantford, Ontario, the birthplace of Wayne Gretzky. And I had remembered something about Gretzky's father, who is about as famous as Wayne is in that city. He always flooded the backyard and turned it into an ice rink and part of the Gretzky lore is that Wayne would skate and skate and skate on that rink all winter long. So he'd get asked for his advice -- how do you raise a hockey great? And his answer was always "Wayne wanted to be out there."
In other words -- You support the kid in what they're interested in. You can encourage them through the tough parts of that. But if your kid HATES something, and has given it a solid try, mabye just let them hate it.
