This is certainly not a topic that I am an expert on, although obviously I have more experience than somebody who does not have children.  I doubt that there are many parents who would claim to be experts, and there are situations you come across, almost every day, that you are not sure how to deal with.  I find myself buying lots of books on parenting, most of which I have not read, and then researching issues on the Internet.  

One of the issues would be exploring a child’s talent.  All children will invariably have a talent for something, but how to you get them to advance in that particular field or area?  On one hand, a dedicated parent helping them and coaching them will certainly ensure that they get ahead – Tiger Woods would be a perfect example.  There are many superstars who have been coached by their parents from an early age, but it becomes a very delicate balance between the parents’ ambitions and the child’s ambition.  My mother for example pushed me into tennis, making me go to two separate coaches a week, and I was pretty bad at it.  Bad at it, relative to the money that was spent on me anyway, although I do think that my golf is now better as a result – I played second team tennis at school, which really is not good enough considering how much coaching I had!  I have not played a single game of tennis in probably about 20 years, and to a large extent it is because of the way I was pushed into it at the time when I had no real interest in it relative, for example, to cricket.  I was also sent to rugby lessons for some bizarre reason, for a short while, until they gave up on that.  

So my parents were doing their best for me, but they were choosing the sports that they liked and that my mother thought were important to play – probably because we lived opposite tennis courts, and she felt that it was a far bigger sport than reality has shown it to be, especially compared to sports like golf, which are far more international, competitive and have far more money in it.  On the other hand, I think of an interview with a South African golfer who has succeeded overseas, despite physical problems with his arms, by the name of Tim Clark.  He was asked as to what you need to do to get your child to be a successful golfer and his answer was that is exactly what you don’t need to do – you don’t need to do anything because they will only achieve it if they want to and if they are motivated.  I guess in some ways it means you need to help your children to explore as many different fields as you think they are talented in, give them gentle prodding and as much assistance as you can, but ultimately you cannot give them a work ethic in that field, although I certainly think I have the same work ethic as my mother, and you cannot force them to continue with something even if they are incredibly talented in that field, but don’t have self-drive.