11-Year-Old On My Mind

My 11-year-old has a thought in his head that he's going to go to college on a full-ride scholarship because of his prowess as a football player. He has this thought because his father is perpetuating it.

I was concerned about this distortion of reality before I actually researched it. After researching it, and coming to read that less than 2% of male college football players get scholarships, and most of those aren't full rides, it made me even more concerned. Even if he was the best player on the field, I would still encourage him to focus more on academics, where the majority of college scholarship money is located, rather than banking on a lottery win.

And how do I mention any of this to him without killing his dream of going to college on a football scholarship?

And do I need to tell him that he's not a very good player right now, so if he was to get any kind of scholarship right now, it probably would be a scholarship to leave the field rather than be on it?

Maybe I should allow time to do it's thing.
I don't bring any of these things to his attention, because, ultimately, they don't matter. There are people who win the lottery. Even people who win the jackpot. There are people who get full-ride football scholarships, I'm sure. I'll bet that some of them weren't good when they were 11. Maybe they worked hard to get where they ended up. Maybe they didn't. His happiness is really my only goal. And I'm certainly not helping that goal by telling him that he's got an unrealistic dream or making him feel like I don't support his desires to go to college on a football scholarship. I've got 7 more years before I have to worry about his chances of getting a football scholarship to college. I don't have to say anything today. Or tomorrow. Maybe Thursday, at the very soonest, I would think.

When he finds out that the things he's learning from his father are making his life significantly harder, it's going to be a very hard and painful lesson. I went thought a similar revelation, and I do not envy his journey. There are parts of me that want to spare him this journey. And there are other parts of me that know his journey is different from my own, and therefore, it is not the same journey I went through, no matter how many similarities there are.

I really love my family and want only good things for them. And some days, that is harder than others.