Children who are very different from their parents

[timetomove]

Thinking here about an academic parent with a less academically able child or a very sporty parent with an uncoordinated child or even a very confident parent with an extremely shy child.

Obviously I appreciate that most parents love their children unconditionally and care primarily about their children being happy and encouraging the talents that they do have, but i do wonder if differences like these can lead to frustrations/impatience if a parent has never themselves had to deal with the particular issue.

The reason for asking is that I think it is becoming an issue for my brother. He and his wife are both extremely intelligent people. The love their son dearly and only want him to be happy. However, he is struggling a bit at school and I can see they do struggle when they try to do homework with him because they just find it really difficult to get down to his level - they don't understand why he doesn't understand. I don't think they are putting pressure on him academically or love him less than they would if he was top of the class. They just want to help him and are worried they are making things worse.

Any tips to share?

Tell them to stay away from trying to teach. People can be accademic, but teaching is another skill all togather. Tell you DB and his lovely wife to attend parent- teachers consultations at school and speak to the teachers about practical help at home.

The other point: adjust expectations. The child might as well turn out to be accademic; he might be a late bloomer!!

There was a thread about this before and it was very interesting.. try doing a search along the lines of academic parents, non-academic children or similar.