Child Star Lessons

Tiger is going through later in life what all child stars do...act out and get in trouble. His life was dictated to him and he gained wealth and notoriety from it. But ultimately, he missed a lot of maturing and growing up time practicing on the golf course. Now he feels like he needs to go through his teen years and go buck wild. The only problem is that he is an adult and married with children and a huge public figure. Most child stars do this at some point in their lives. The list is very long...most children who were stars at a young age, spent most of their time practicing a sport the parents thought they 'showed talent in' endure some sort of crisis in their adult years. They often have drug problems, alcohol addiction, or get arrested for some crazy reason. It amazes me that people actually thought this man was perfection personified and he could do no wrong. They forgot he was human and male!

His parents have insisted that he had a normal childhood with plenty of video game playing and eating junk food. The problem is that I never hear about the teen years, dating, hanging with friends, doing what a 'normal' teen does. They say he liked playing golf and was happy to practice. Unfortunately kids don't always let a parent know how they really feel. They know the parents are happy seeing the practicing, the TV appearances, so the child continues without complaining. The child may not even know that being driven at such an early age is a problem. But in our society it is. This may not be an issue in another country with different values and commitments to discipline, but in the US, children need time to act out and do silly things.

Someone said Tiger perpetrated a fraud through the image we see of him in the media. I don't think so...fans created the image of Tiger...Don't ever remember him saying he is perfect without any faults...He was just making money from whomever offered and by winning his game. Being faithful to the wife was never part of the package. So he has made millions and that may end but he is still rich beyond most of our imaginations. He may be hurting because he looks bad in the media but his wallet is still stuffed. Wrong as it may have been, the image they all talk about was a media image created for the money machine called Tiger Woods.

This is another lesson to all parents who live through their kids. Tiger and his parents reaped the financial benefits but the emotional issues remain unresolved. I am not saying that I condone what he has done or even feel sorry for him, but there is an explanation worth thinking about.