Do your chores every day after school.. Eat, chores, then homework.
Don't text or watch TV when your doing homework.. You'll get distracted. All
A's and B's this year. Don't bring me home anything else if you want a summer.
All your focus should be on school and basketball. You don't have time for
girls and all that other BS. Always make sure you're ready for basketball. I
don't want you forgetting your bag like you always do. Work hard at practice..
harder than anyone else there. No excuses. You go 110% every time. You want to
be the best don't you? Yes.. of course I do. Then why do you
play like a girl in your games? I hate to watch you play like that. I want more
effort... 110%.. Stop crying, or i'll give you something to cry about. You
better man up. Don't let anyone talk down to you. You don't start a fight but
you damn well finish it.. You hear me? I only want what's best for you. I want
you to have everything I never could have. That only comes with hard work. No
goofing off, no getting in trouble at school, or on the streets, always in the
gym or at home doing school work.. You need to grow up, and grow up fast. We
don't have time for all this immaturity. Do you understand? Yes.. I
understand. Good.. Now go out there and make me proud.
I think it's interesting that you're a female athlete and you've noted the sexist notion that a man is playing badly if he is "playing like a girl". Most of these blog entries for this assignment, mine included, feature a rough, no-nonsense kind of father figure, which tells me that we either hold that sort of image as the archetypical father in this country, or we all had hardass dads growing up.
ReplyDeleteWow! That was intense! "Don't let anyone talk down to you" is kind of ironic, no? It seems that some of this advice is a sort of talking down to the person getting the advice. Everything is so regimented. And in accordance with some of these rules, there is no time to do anything but work. I can't even imagine the sort of pressure on this boy. I leave the passage worried for the boy--even though his responses are docile and agreeable, I have to wonder whether "110%" is attainable without sustaining some sort of damage. It's a compliment to your writing that I am concerned about this fictional character you've created :)
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