Shawn Johnson, the former elite gymnast, describes the terror of switching from following coaches' instructions to being the primary coach for her own child. She worries she'll overthink parenting decisions and cause psychological damage, spinning out into fears about jail, prison, and therapy.
In my athletic career, I invested all of my time and effort into finding coaches to teach me. And I knew if I could turn my brain off and do exactly as I was told, I could be successful. Now you have a kid, and there's no such thing as a coach for a kid. You are the coach. And that terrified me. How do I know I'm being intentional? How do I know I'm actually doing the things that matter? Am I overthinking everything so much that I'm gonna send my child to therapy for the rest of their life? You know, it's like you just start— go to jail. Literally, what if I— what if they're in prison? Am I going to bail them out? Murder someone? Oh my gosh.
