Natwerk Designs

What are your thoughts on this?

I was reading an old article about Todd Marinovich (a quarterback from the 90's for those non- (American) football fans out there). He was basically engineered from day 1 to be a super athlete (see the paragraphs below) and was very talented, but had a short-lived pro career and substance abuse problems. My question is this: we know now that even after an incredibly regulated upbringing, he still crashed and burned. But even if he HAD made it and become the stuff of legends, would it have been worth such an upbringing? Because it sounds pretty joyless to me. ***"What's fascinating about Marinovich, a 6'4½", 212-pound lefthanded redhead, is that he is, in a real sense, America's first test-tube athlete. He has never eaten a Big Mac or an Oreo or a Ding Dong. When he went to birthday parties as a kid, he would take his own cake and ice cream to avoid sugar and refined white flour. He would eat homemade catsup, prepared with honey. He did consume beef but not the kind injected with hormones. He ate only unprocessed dairy products. He teethed on frozen kidney. When Todd was one month old, Marv was already working on his son's physical conditioning. He stretched his hamstrings. Pushups were next. Marv invented a game in which Todd would try to lift a medicine ball onto a kitchen counter. Marv also put him on a balance beam. Both activites grew easier when Todd learned to walk. There was a football in Todd's crib from day one. "Not a real NFL ball," says Marv. "That would be sick; it was a stuffed ball." Meanwhile, Todd's mother, Trudi, worked on the region above the neck by playing classical music (lots of Bach and Beethoven) and jazz (plenty of George Shearing and Woody Herman) in his room. Cartoons were forbidden because they were too violent. Instead, Trudi tuned her son in to old movies like Hitchcock and Agatha Christie thrillers to spark his intellect. She dragged Todd along with his sister, Traci, now 21, to museums. To this day, when Trudi makes an unexpected turn in the car, Todd says, "Uh-oh, Mom's taking us to another museum."'****

Public Comments

1. One of my students and his siblings were raised in such a manner. The parents decided what each of them were going to excel at when they were born. To outsiders looking in, they looked like a normal family with 3 (the one I worked with was the black sheep, outcast, failure of the family...which they made very clear was his role) exceptional children. They were without a doubt the most screwed up family I have ever known. Long story short, my student committed suicide during his senior year of high school and all 3 of his siblings developed severe issues with drugs and alcohol while in college.
2. I don't care if my son grows up to be the greatest player the NFL has ever seen and makes hundreds of millions of dollars. If he's not happy, none of it is worth it. I feel so terrible for children when I see them being forced to become this or that. Parents trying to live out their dreams through their kids. It's all wrong.
3. Two words: Michael Jackson When you take a child's childhood away and force them to become something they might not want to be they end up miserable, resentful, depressed, and overwhelmed. That can lead to all sorts of problems such as health problems, drug/alcohol addiction, depression, etc. Bad parenting at it's finest.
4. I would say its that rigid upbringing that caused his crash. And no, even if had succceded, I dont think it would have been worth it.