OPINION: To the parents of ‘gifted’ children

I GET it. Your son/daughter didn’t get enough game time, the other players on the team are not playing fair, the coach has his favourites.

DEAR  Mums and Dads,

I get it. Your son/daughter didn't get enough game time, the other players on the team are not playing fair, the coach has his favourites (usually his or her own son or daughter), there are too many players, there are not enough players, the weather was terrible, there were things going on at home, and the referee…

Well, let's not get started on the referee, whose decisions will not only decide the winners and losers of the game, but who is also solely responsible for your child's decision whether to wear dark make-up or a make-up that suits the tone of their skin when they're a teenager.

But the referee also allows your son or daughter to be, what can only be described as, the victim of the sort of rough play that regularly puts your child in danger and actually threatens to cut your son's or daughter's life short, before they can even find the jet black - or very dark blueberry - in the lipstick aisle.

I get it. Because there is no way your child doesn't have that talent that leads to greatness.

So there must be some other reason why you son or daughter didn't star in the game this weekend.

It's the same reasoning that academics have when their children bring home the report cards with a B on it.

"Their school wasn't right. What are they teaching? There is that one kid who's always disruptive in class, and then it's the one kid who always leads your son and daughter astray, even though you have forbidden your children to become friends with this 'future destroyer'."

Believe me, I understand. You're all irrational parents with borderline fits of delusion.

Particularly when you open a report card or stand on the sidelines at the weekend.

Originally published as OPINION: To the parents of ‘gifted’ children