Are You Proud of Your Kids? VIDEO of a Dad Taking Pride in His Son

Aria Shahrokhshahi, an academically struggling teenager in Nottingham, England, had been failing math–something his father Farnoosh knew could ruin his future. According to Aria, you need to pass math “to basically do anything with your life” in England (which is something our kids in America might want to discover as well).

He worked hard and to the surprise of his teachers, who projected otherwise, he DID pass math.

So what does this kid do? He wants to record the reaction of his father when he finds out, so he puts out a camera facing the entry to his house, where he knows his dad will walk in. And that’s where this video comes from (which had 100k views when my wife sent it to me and I wrote this, and now has 1.5 million, and by the time you read this might have ???):

Now, you might be saying, as the boy suggests in his description of the video, that merely passing math is not that big of a deal. Well, you may think that–and it might be true for some other kid for whom math comes easy–but his dad didn’t see it that way. His dad showed pure joy and pride for his son accomplishing something that might have been easy for others. What can we learn about being proud of our kids from this story?

At least three things come to my mind:

1) It is more important to celebrate our kid’s effort than their achievement. “Getting good grades” is less important than the accomplishment of improvement born of work ethic.

2) Our kids know what will make us proud. Just think about it–what proud moment in the last 5 years would your kids have wanted to make a video of?

3) Going over-the-top with our proud response doesn’t belittle us or spoil our kids. How many of us watching this video were thinking: “Man alive I wish my Dad would have done that for me.”

The rest of the story is that Aria not only passed math but he graduated from High School and is now in College. He’s glad that he “doesn’t have to take math anymore.”

So, are you proud of your kids? Of course you are. I know I am.

How can we show it in a way that makes our kids think: “I wish I had that on video to show my friends!”

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Have you heard what Max Lucado said about my book called Being Dad? Here’s his endorsement:

“Everything about this book says: read me! Dads are torn by time demands, wracked by guilt and confused by the thousand and one messages they hear. Fathers need help. This book will provide it. As a longtime friend and coworker of David Drury, I can vouch for his faith and preparation. His words will encourage men to embrace the highest call of their lives . . . fatherhood.”
– Max Lucado, pastor and bestselling author

Being Dad by David Drury