Keep score and win at fatherhood

GAME STATISTICS
MIN	PTS	STL	RBD	BLK	AST	TO
35.4	48	3.2	10	2.1	11	1.1

So how exactly do you keep score as a parent? The fears of inadequacy can creep up on the best of us from time to time. It is the hardest working parent with well adjust, if not exceptional children that often feel this way. Leave it to a guy who is an athlete and a sales person to ponder the idea of a scoreboard for parenting a la the box scores in your local sports section.

The idea of scoring your parenting skills didn't come out of competitiveness, it came from compassion. I was listening to my wife's frustrations and concerns that she wasn't doing the best for our son, which I know to be untrue. She is an outstanding parent. In the heat of the moment it didn't matter how much I reminded her of all the things she does that has made him the wonderful kid he is today. It occurred to me that it would have been great to whip out a stats sheet of the last two years and say "Hey! Look what you did in this category and that category". Many areas of our lives are plagued by overly critical self evaluation. Parenting is hard enough as it is without beating ourselves up.

Basketball, golf, baseball, tennis, as with most sports have as many stats as you can imagine. I mean where else but American football would a stat like YAC (yards after catch) sound appealing. When compared to parenting these numbers are trivial at best. Here are some stats that would be cool to track.

PRIMO PAPA STATISTICS
MPD	HPD	P to P	RB	BPD	AT	AST
45	12.8	9:1	22	2.5	1.1	2.3

MPD = Minutes of one on one time per day

HPD = Hugs per day

P to P = Praise to punishment ratio

RB = Repeatable Behavior. Would it be a good thing if your kids did what you just did?

BPD = Number of books read to child per day

AT = Adventures taken together

AST = Number of times you let them help, instead of just doing it yourself even though it will take twice as long.


What would you keep stats on to evaluate your parenting skills?

We need to take time and reflect on the progress we make each day as leaders, teachers, care givers, and providers instead of getting bogged down with the occasional bad day.