Experience Rules: How to Be a Better Parent

By Greg Baer M.D.

September 3, 2024

Experience Is Indispensable

In May 2021 a golfer named Phil Mickelson won one of golfā€™s four ā€œmajor championships.ā€

For those four days, he was the best golfer in the world.

That alone would be remarkable, but it was even more notable because he did it at the age of fifty, the oldest man ever to win a major tournament.

The course was very difficult, with only a few players shooting under parā€”out of the 156 players who entered, all of whom qualified to enter over hundreds of other golfers.

Heat had dried out the grass, and gusting winds created more problems.

But while other players were baffled by the conditions, Mickelson used a lifetime of experience with difficult circumstances to his advantage.

He knew when and how to change clubs and swings to suit the conditions, and in the end, he stood at the clubhouse holding a huge trophy above his head.

Sports betters set his odds of winning at about 280-to-1, but, in the words of one sports writer, ā€œthe player who could tame the combination of whipping winds, sand, and long rough on this South Carolina island was the one who has decades of experience solving those types of problems.ā€ Experienced ruled.

Experience Come Through Persistence

As parents we often want a simpler solution to difficult problems. Who wouldnā€™t? But some wisdom comes only at a great price: persisting and learning through a great many difficulties and failures. There is no easy way to gain experience.

Over the years, Mickelson failed in many situations and lost many tournaments, but he didnā€™t quit, and his experience accumulatedā€”just as it will for us as parents if we persist.

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About the author 

Greg Baer, M.D.

I am the founder of The Real LoveĀ® Company, Inc, a non-profit organization. Following the sale of my successful ophthalmology practice I have dedicated the past 25 years to teaching people a remarkable process that replaces all of life's "crazy" with peace, confidence and meaning in various aspects of their personal lives, including parenting, marriages, the workplace and more.

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