Okay, I am not the perfect parent-coach—if such a thing even exists. Plus, it’s not about being perfect, anyway.

One thing I have learned is that the game is about my son and not about me. R-E-S-P-E-C-T: You have to respect your child’s sports experiences. I learned this lesson the hard way. I used to run up and down the sidelines at Jack’s lacrosse games and scream advice—and I wasn’t even the coach. Finally, Jack told me that this just confused him, because he got advice from the coach and from me, and he didn’t know who to listen to.

I learned to keep my sideline shouts to encouragement and leave the game-time advice to the coach. Oh, yeah, I later became coach of Jack’s lacrosse team!