There are a lot of pressures on parents today, and despite the frustrations, you cannot simply throw in the towel. There is a tendency today to believe that everything must be complicated, but to become a touchdown dad or mom, you need to think like a football coach. Many sports teach principles useful for parenting, but because of the popularity of football, let's show how this applies to you and how you can use it daily to make positive, worthwhile and lasting changes that will improve everyone in your family.



Football is a team sport. That's something fundamental to understand in football and in life. Fostering a household where each is encouraged in their pursuits and made to feel a part of the team is essential. This nurtures a spirit of cooperation, emphasises individual differences that contributes to the family as a whole in a unique way. Team building involves looking at individual players and seeing where their strengths are. People are different and need to be treated differently. This is evident on a team with many different positions like football, and to become a touchdown dad or mom, you need to recognize this individuality and encourage it. It is the differences that make people special. Football coaches know this. They would not ask a running back to do a tight ends' job or someone unaccustomed to a special teams role to suddenly step in on a permanent basis. The result would be failure. Coaches know that everyone on a team has a specific role to play and each brings their own set of special talents and abilities to that role.

To become a touchdown dad or mom also requires flexibility. In football, when the opposing team does something with the goal to confuse and surprise, a winning coach must be ready to adapt and make changes that will minimize the results of the opposing teams efforts and in many cases match and offset this strategy with a few surprises of their own. The same is true in a family. There can be situations where a family member is surprised by the actions of a friend or even another family member. To become a touchdown dad, you must be flexible in your approaches to dealing with problems and unexpected situations that may develop.

In football the players have a time to practice and grown and they maintain that schedule at the coaches insistence. If they deviate from the team requirements, it isn't long before they are warming the bench instead of making a difference on the field. Each team member knows his significance to the rest of the team and is inspired to give it all both on and off the field. In families, the same is true, a time together, no matter how brief is extremely important. To discuss the day's happenings or plays of the day, to extend the football metaphor, requires time together. Even if there is not a lot of time, some is better than none. To develop a practice that becomes a habit requires both time and repetition. Once this becomes a habit instilled at an early age and other things are displayed in favour of this time - then good things begin to happen.

Football also requires focus and discipline. Players must play when they don't feel like it. They must be up for the game when called upon and rely on inner strengths and personal pride to go and be "Up" when everything inside them is saying the opposite. To become a touchdown dad or mom, lead by example. Go the extra mile even though you are not called upon do so. Make the time to be with your children. Just as a couch must lead and inspire his or her team; take the time to show by example. The same principles that translate to a winning football team can be aptly applied to family. Make a difference in you family and become a touchdown dad or mom.