When Clint Edwards picked up his son from soccer practise he was surprised to learn of a 'moment'.
His son, Tristan, had engaged in a small meltdown during the training session, with coaches not understanding what was wrong with the youngster.
Tristan had sat out practise for a little afterwards, nonetheless, he was still feeling downhearted.
When Clint and Tristan hopped into the car to venture home, dad knew it was his time to say something, but he wasn't sure which approach he should take.
More often than not, boys are told they should take the 'man up' or 'toughen up' route, and for a moment the dad-of-three considered this.
Clint explained: "I assumed that's what the coach wanted me to do. Every father since the history of ever has been faced with this decision."
"But the thing is, that's what I was always told when I was 10. Not by my father. He wasn't around. I was told that by coaches and other fathers. I was already strong enough to face things without a dad, so 'toughen up talk' didn't make me feel stronger. It made me feel weaker."
"It made me quit."
Being faced with the decision of relaying the same speech to his son, Clint decided against it, instead offering to buy his little man an ice-cream on one condition; Tristan told his dad everything, the whole story.
Tristan of course delighted at the prospect of ice-cream began to go over the event, and Dad learned the real reason why his son was feeling so low; he felt he wasn't good enough at the game, with others around him improving, while he was still at the same level.
Tristan wanted to quit.
"We were at McDonald's then, eating ice cream. I told him how I quit sports as a kid because of all that, and I wish I hadn't."
Clint explained to his son that it's not always about being the best, but about growing, trying and gaining skills: "Your whole life will be like this: sports, school, work, family. It's all about showing up and trying."
"Sometimes I feel like I'm not getting any better at this whole dad thing. But I keep showing up and trying. Life is like that," explained Clint.
Tristan believed none of his dad's speech made much sense, with Dad thinking he messed it up and probably should have gone with the tough love route after all: "It would have probably been easier, but it didn't feel right."
"Sometimes fatherhood is like that. I've been at it for 10 years, and I still don't know what I'm doing."
But following a few more scoops of ice-cream and the digestion of information, the dad-of-three worked up the courage to ask his son if he was about to quit playing soccer...
Tristan took another bite of his ice-cream and replied: "No, I'm going to keep trying."
And that is how we do parenting guys - sometimes we need to remember that our children need a reassuring ear instead of being told to 'get on with it'.
We bet Tristan is enjoying his sport a lot more now that he knows it's about trying.
