Surrounded by professional soccer players, growing up running around stadiums, traveling with the team, hanging out at the lake with players whose names are on the backs of 1/2 the jerseys in the stadium, having dinner with famous players and coaches, being handed opportunities like going to concerts or the Super Bowl because of who your dad is…. it can be difficult to raise humble children when this is their norm.
My kids have signed jerseys from their favorite players hanging in their closet- including a personalized jersey from Messi. They have access to talk to many players any time they want. My oldest has a Liverpool player that is his absolute favorite player and he was able to get that player to send a video to him. When this is your kids norm it can be hard to find a balance. We have ALWAYS down played things for them while also telling them that this is not the norm for other children. We try hard to discourage idolizing anyone, especially players. My kids are able to see that these are normal people with an extraordinary talent and the reason why so many other people idolize them is because they don’t see them as normal people because this is not their norm.
We make sure that our kids see the other side of life also. They go to public school and have sat in the classroom with homeless children. We have them volunteer to see how privileged they are. We talk to them constantly about how we treat others and our focus should always be to serve others and make others feel special. It’s best to let them know how privileged they are, acknowledge it and be so grateful for it.
Two of the most important things to teach your kids are humility and gratitude and we focus on both every opportunity we get. Our children know that their childhood is magical and they try and share those experiences with their friends as often as possible.