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Most Valuable Agent with Matt Hannaford
Why Your Son Doesn't Want to Practice Anymore (An MLB Agent's Honest Answer)
00:30:51
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- [00:13]
A
Hi, guys. Welcome back to another solo episode of the Most Valuable Agent podcast. I'm your host, Matt Hannaford, and if you've not been on here before, I've been an agent for Major League Baseball players for the past 26 years. Yeah, 26 years. Now I have to check myself every once in a while. But one of the things that we've been doing recently is we've been doing these Q and A epis with my producer Mike, and we've gotten a lot of good feedback. And so we wanted to bring you another one and we wanted to really spend some time and answer a lot of the questions that you guys, the listener, have been sending to us. So, Mike, how we doing, buddy?
- [00:45]
B
Man, doing awesome. The response to these episodes we've been doing, Matt, has just been really killer. So thanks to everybody for your comments and your feedback. Matt and I have just loved reading what you guys are writing and some of you have sent some questions in. So, Matt, let's just get right into it, man. This, this is going to us because a lot of baseball parents just have a ton of questions still around their kids and are they motivated by baseball? So we got a great question here, and I'm just going to jump into it. This question is revolving around a kid's love for the game. And so the question is, as a baseball parent, Matt, my son used to beg me to go to the batting cages. Now I have to remind him about practice for travel ball. He never asked to throw in the yard with me anymore. How do I know if my kid is losing his love for the game or if this is just a normal part of youth baseball development?
- [01:40]
A
Great question. Yeah. And I will be the first to tell you. I think the more I do this and the more I talk to these families, this can be a bit of a common theme. So here's what I would tell you. A lot of what's going to be leading or what I'm at least going to be recommending that you as a mom or a dad kind of listen to is your gut instinct. Right. You'll also hear me say, oftentimes there's context that's needed. So in this specific case, my first question is, well, how old is your son? But the one thing, let's just make the assumption that he's anywhere from 10 to 15 years old. Right. And he's somebody, it sounds like, based on what the question is that he, at least in prior years, maybe was interested and really came to you mom or dad, and said, let's, let's go out there and play catch, and he's no longer doing that. The thing that I. I would encourage you to do is you have a conversation, right? There's no reason why you need to read his mind instead of wondering, does he care? Does he want to continue to play baseball? Does he want to go to these games or to these practices or to these tournaments? I think you should ask him if you, as a family, are, you know, certainly willing to spend the money that it's going to cost to go play in these various events and these showcases and whatnot. I think it does make sense that you at least align with your family and your son and figure out, is this something that you even want to do? And by the way, I would also let him know, assuming this is how you feel, that if he doesn't want to do it, that that's okay too. Right? A lot of parents feel this responsibility to, you know, kind of carry the torch for their son. And maybe what they're thinking, if I had to assume, is they want to carry the torch because they think at some point, eventually their son is going to kind of pick up the slack and they're going to want to be involved and they're going to want to do these various things. And in my experience, it doesn't necessarily happen like that. And so my advice to the mom or dad in this instance is you need to have a conversation with your son, and you need to ask him, look, just to be honest, it feels like you're no longer interested in doing some of the things that we used to do, getting ready for these baseball tournaments or these practices. Is it safe to assume that maybe this isn't something that you're interested in doing anymore? Do you want to even play baseball? And what I would imagine that you hear from your son is really this honest answer. I would hope that either. No, you're misreading that. I'm just enjoying maybe doing some of this stuff that I'm currently doing with my time. Or the opposite could happen. Maybe he tells you, yeah, you know what? I appreciate you bringing this up. And unfortunately, this isn't something that I really care about doing anymore. I'd rather spend my time in other ways. And so regardless of the answer, I think what you're going to ultimately have is clarity. And then at that point, as a mom or dad now, you can really analyze and figure out, all right, based on what he said, I now need to think about what the next course of action is. If he's somebody who says, no, I Think you've misanalyzed this. I actually do love it still. I do want to do it, but I'm a little burnt out. Maybe it's a little. A little too much recently that we've been doing great. Then you need to scale it back a little bit. If he's merely telling you, no, I do love playing baseball. I just don't like to practice. Well, then at that point, it's an opportunity, mom or dad, for you guys, to help him understand. Well, look, if you want to do this and actually turn this into something, whether that's a career down the road, playing professionally, again, depending on how old he is, if it's to get a scholarship, if it's even to make his high school team, I think what would benefit the son in this instance is really helping him understand the value of hard work. Right. If he wants to really do something and he wants to, you know, put his name to it, obviously his work product is gonna, you know, it's gonna say a lot about who he is, a lot about his character. And so it's an opportunity for him really to, you know, learn and think about, yeah, should I be doing a little bit more? And here's the deal. If for some reason he tells you he really wants to play baseball, but he just doesn't like to practice, then I think you really need to think long and hard about. All right. Is it likely that if we devote the energy, if we devote the money into, you know, joining this travel organization or going to these various tournaments, if he's unwilling to put the work in now, that's probably not going to change down the road. There's something else maybe, that you guys need to figure out as a family. So, again, just to reiterate all of this, I think a lot can be solved just by having a honest conversation. So I would certainly start there. And as I've told parents on here all the time, if you guys have more specific questions related to your son's situation, feel free to message me, send me a dm, whether it's on Instagram, you can shoot me an email and just, you know, kind of give me some context and let me. Let me answer it that way by having a little bit more information. Um, I certainly can go into greater detail, but I would need some additional things before I do that. So hopefully that's. That makes sense, Mike.
- [06:28]
B
Yeah, and I. And I would also assume that the parent who sent in this question really wants to talk about, like, the accountability piece for a child, especially a son who's playing travel baseball. So, like, in your experience with all the families that you've worked with, you know, how do you get your kid to be accountable when it comes to baseball or playing, you know, playing travel baseball specifically, you know, something that comes to mind is, you know, let the kid tell you that when practices, or let the kid tell you, hey, I want to go play catch, or, hey, I want to go hit in the cages. I'm assuming that accountability is incredibly important, but these kids are also 10, 11, so how realistic is that?
- [07:08]
A
Well, yeah, so I think where my mind goes, recently, I was. I was in San Diego, and a good friend of mine who's been on this podcast, Johan, he and I did this event in. In collaboration with FCA in San Diego. And I guess the gist, the meat and potatoes of this specific event, there was one real, real foundational piece too, as we were communicating with the parents, kind of like the biggest message that we wanted to convey. And that is, what is the vision that not only you, the parent, have, but what is the vision that your son has for his career? And so I think that's a good conversation to have with them. If you're a parent and you're sensing it's something's a miss, you know, maybe he's not as interested as he once was. Maybe you're just. You're sensing something's off, I think it's important to have that conversation. And you can ask him, hey, what is your vision for this? Right? For you, if this, if you're the only thing that mattered, and you know, you want to do this for the next five, maybe 10 years, what do you want to accomplish by doing this? Do you want to play baseball with your friends? Right? Do you want to turn this into a scholarship? Do you have ambitions to play professional baseball one day? And then through that conversation again, as a parent, you're going to really understand a little bit more so that you can then lead with more questions. I think the biggest mistake parents make is they think they have to have all the answers. And so instead of coming to this conversation with a curious mind and asking, like, legitimate questions, you're trying to figure out in your mind, like, okay, how do I make him work hard? How do I make him understand the value of all of these various things? And what you're not doing is you're not starting with, well, wait a minute, what is the vision that you have for this? Because if. If you take this specific example, and let's assume the vision that this son has in this Instance in the particular instance that we talked about here, you know, maybe his vision is he wants to just play with his buddies. Okay, well, why isn't he practicing? Because his buddies maybe aren't at that particular practice. Maybe they're on the high school team, but they're not on the travel ball team. Okay, well, then it makes sense why he isn't interested in maybe going to these other practices if he's not willing to. Maybe you have a cage in the backyard and he doesn't want to, you know, he doesn't want to do any tea work. He doesn't want to, you know, hit off a machine in the backyard. He doesn't want to hit BP off of. Let's say you're the dad who's throwing a bp. Or. Well, maybe it's because, yeah, his buddies aren't there. So now that you know he's doing this because he wants to play with his friends, it's an opportunity for then you to say, well, do you want to invite your friends over to the house and maybe we can hit as a group? And now he may be interested, but all to say, you're going to learn all of that information by asking him these very specific questions. So I would start with, yeah, what is the vision that you have? And in my experience, a lot of times these kids don't necessarily have that vision piece figured out. And so if you approach the kid in that. In that situation and they're like, vision, you know, what do you mean? I think what you can also lead with. And I'm going to have more information on this coming soon. But one of the things that we tackled in this event was everybody has a complaint, right? Whether it's you, the parent, or whether it's your son, there's always some complaint that they have. And in regards to baseball, oftentimes that complaint is, you know, I wish I was better than I was. I wish I hit better, I wish I pitched better. I wish I was ranked, whatever it is. And here's what I would encourage you to think about. So underneath that complaint is essentially a vision. Right? A complaint is either something that you want to have happen that isn't, or complaint is something that is happening that you don't want. So it's just thinking about it. So you can ask those questions to your son. Okay. If you don't know your vision, that's understandable. I wonder how we can come up with what your vision actually is. Do you like playing with your friends? Yes, I do. Okay. Do you like playing baseball? In general? Yes, I do. Then go a level deeper. You know, if you're frustrated about something, what is that? Well, I'm frustrated because the coach doesn't acknowledge me and he doesn't play me as much as maybe I want. Okay, so then underneath that is a vision of your son wants to play more. Okay, well, if you want to play more, there's multiple ways for that to happen. One is we can have just an honest conversation with the coach. The other is maybe there's a piece of the game that your son needs to work on. Our way to play more is to perform better. So if you want to play more, we've got to put the work in. In the cage. We've got to put the work in. In practice to. That's the byproduct of doing that stuff. So, again, a lot of things can be solved just by having these honest conversations. And I would encourage you go with the curious mind. You do not need to have all the answers. I think sometimes you think that your son is expecting you to have all the answers. They already put you on a pedestal. I think you would actually get a ton of respect from your child if you came more. More from a place of curiosity than, hey, I'm telling you how this needs to go. Um, so I would encourage you to. To maybe start there. So hopefully that all made sense, Mike.
- [12:21]
B
Yeah, I think that's a. That's a great answer for that parent out there who I know is listening right now to having their question answered. So let's jump into the next one. We got a question from David. And David writes, hey, Matt, my kid hit a couple homers two weeks ago, and now his hands are dropping and he's getting under everything. He's hitting weak pop flies, and he's just hitting nothing but foul tips. As a baseball dad, I know what the mechanical fix is. But should a baseball parent be coaching their kids swing at home, or is that the kind of thing that will ruin their development?
- [12:54]
A
Good question. Yeah, I'm really glad you brought this up. Here's the reality of it. You. You said something in your question, David, where. And maybe you do know that what the mechanical fix is, but I would almost argue that. Don't be so sure that you do. I mean, there's various things that could be at play here, right? Obviously, if his hands are dropping, you're thinking, well, his hands are dropping, so we need to raise his hands. And yes, there's a lot to be said for that, but I think you need. Where I would caution you Is the first issue that I'm hearing is you have information that you want to deliver to them and you think that just by giving them the information, like that's a potential solve. And I think that's where a lot of parents get into some, some hot water. So the first thing is, is it doesn't just require that you have the answer to the problem, right? Part of it is we have to deliver this information to the kid in a way that he is going to receive the information. So instead of you saying, I have the answer, I want to give it to him, or should I give it to him? I think you first need to start with, okay, how does my son ultimately receive information that's given to him? Whether that's by the coach or by you, the parent. If you've tried to give him information before and he's closed minded and he's closed off to that information, then it doesn't even matter if what you have to deliver is true. He's probably going to want to push back a little bit, right? So what I would encourage you to do is maybe talk to his coach or if there's, if he goes to a facility and maybe he hits with somebody, encourage them to have the conversation first. And then through that you can then figure out how you personally want to handle it. I think a potential mistake is just to say I have the, I have the fix. Here it is. And if you do that, what I would imagine your son does on some level, because like, let's play this out, right? You guys go in the backyard and you're working on it and you say, hey, I think you need to raise your hands, try this and you throw to him a couple times and he does it and it doesn't work, what do you think he's going to do? This doesn't work. And he's going to get frustrated and he's going to get even more frustrated because the parent you who's giving him this advice, he feels like he's letting you down. Maybe he feels like, oh, I should be able to do this, why isn't it not working? And so that's going to lead to one of two things. One is he's going to say I suck. Or two, you don't know what you're talking about. Why do we want to roll the dice with that? So I would say, look, number one, it's certainly a good thing that you believe to know what the fix is, but that's not enough. Go a step further, okay, Knowing that you think you know what the fix is. Now, how should we deliver this potential information with an open mind so that he receives it? Well, I would start personally with, let's talk to his coach. Now, let me bring up a potential issue that I see happening in this example. So let's say the parent, David, you're, you're hearing me say that and you're like, ah, well, that's the problem is I don't want to talk to the coach because the coach thinks it's something different, right? Okay. So if we're trying to solve the problem of, look, he's obviously not swinging the bat well, there's something going on. Here's what I would tell you. And this is, again, this. I don't want to over complicate the situation and I also don't want to make you seem like, oh, I have all the answers because you kind of need to test stuff out. But at the highest level, most of the time, the fix is never mechanical. It's usually pitch selection, right? It's usually what's what he's thinking about before. It's just this mechanical change. And you can look in the big leagues and watch every single hitter, everybody swings differently. There have been plenty of guys that you would say, oh man, your hands are dropping, that, that's never going to work. But then they have success at the next level. And so maybe to your son, this is what's most comfortable. So let's first lead with a curious mind saying, okay, if I believe this to be the thing that we need to like, fix and work on, if I believe that, that this is it, how do I deliver this information to them in a way that is going to be received well and that he ultimately is going to be willing to kind of work through this stuff. One of the things that could help him is for you to explain to him, look, look at all these hitters in the big leagues, right? And I, I do this with my clients even is I'll go through and I'll, I'll pick somebody who's arguably one of the best hitters in the big leagues. And I'll go back the last couple years and I'll find a stretch where that player was 0 for 30 or 1 for, you know, 1 for 25 with a ton of strikeouts, right? And you don't need to go to that degree. I mean, maybe it's over 12 with like seven strikeouts. And I'd say, look at the highest level, the very best hitter in the game, he even struggles. So it's not a matter of how do we avoid struggle 100% of the time? It's how do we get out of the struggle when we experience it? One of the ways you do that is to say I have to be curious as a player. I wonder what I'm doing and is it something I'm thinking about? Is it something with my mechanics? And then kind of just start there. So the first thing that I want to commend David with though is he's not just forcibly going to his son. Like, his question wasn't, hey, Matt, my son's dropping his hands. I keep telling him this is what he needs to do. He's not listening to me. Like, what, what am I supposed to do? That's, that's kind of even a bigger problem. The fact that you dad are recognizing that, that maybe the best thing isn't just to forcibly tell him this is already a win. So I think you want to give yourself a pat on the back for that, but just go a step further and then ask the question, okay, if I believe this to be the thing, what's the best pathway to kind of correct this? What's the best pathway for us to go from where we are today to where we need him to get to and how do we get him to kind of be willing to work through some of that challenge and some of that struggle? That's, I think, where you're gonna find kind of the gold. So again, DM me happy to go into more depth, but that's, that's what I would recommend. Yeah.
- [18:50]
B
And I think so many parents can relate to David right now too because, you know, they want to fix their kid and they, you know, it comes off as fixing. But you know, deep down these, our parents love their kids so much and that they just want their kids to be successful. So, you know, I definitely can see, you know, where David's struggling a little bit. It's like, I think I can fix it, but, but I'm also, I don't know if I'm doing more harm than good.
- [19:12]
A
No. And again, I think I, I hate to keep going to the age thing. It matters. It, it, it truly makes such a big difference. Because if your son is 8 versus 15. Oh, well, it's, it's a little different. Right. Maybe a 15 year old is a little bit more seasoned in like working through some struggle where an 8 year old man, he's just trying to keep the bat up here. Right. So it's a totally different thing like trying to fix the mechanics of an eight year old. There's a part of me that would just tell you, don't even worry about it. He just needs to get comfortable swinging a bat. The mechanics will come later. He's, as he matures, hits puberty naturally, he's going to get stronger. He's going to be able to perform a little bit better just through the experience. But if he's 15. Yeah, that's where there's a lot of other factors involved that I think are, are important for this, for this question. So. Yeah, well.
- [19:57]
B
And David, I hope, I hope we answered your question and good luck to you. You can always, you can always DM and reach out to us. All right, Matt, last question for today is from Kevin. And Kevin says, hey, Matt, there's a travel ball parent on my son's 10 and under team who walks around every tournament telling anyone who will listen that his kid is going D1. The kid's fine, but he's 10. How do you deal with a toxic baseball parent without poisoning the whole entire experience for your son?
- [20:31]
A
I guess my first reaction is there's only one. But also, I would even argue, I don't know that that's necessarily what I would consider toxic, but in the, in the example, I guess, yeah, this, this person certainly does. His name was Kevin. You said Mike.
- [20:47]
B
Yeah, it sounds like, yeah. And from, from looking at the question and maybe I can give a little bit more insight into this. It reads to me, Matt, like Kevin doesn't like the fact that this dad is walking around these tournaments telling everybody that his son's going D1.
- [21:02]
A
Yeah.
- [21:03]
B
And the son is a good baseball player, but he's 10 years old. And maybe Kevin's a little threatened by that. Maybe Kevin feels like, you know, hey, like, I, you know, I don't like people like that. So I guess he's labeling his toxic behavior, you know. But I'd love to hear what you think.
- [21:19]
A
Yeah, I mean, look, it's understandable, right? I think, here's my advice. I, I, I would slow down a minute. And I, I would not think that it's your responsibility to like, okay, how do I deal with this person? For me, if I was in your shoes, Kevin, I wouldn't deal with them at all. I would let them just have whatever experience they're going to have. And you, as a parent, I would just, hey, you guys have your own plan. You guys are focused on your own thing. What happens with this kid, his son, what happens with this parent, that's it's going to play itself out. If I had to, you know, See into the future. What my answer would ultimately be is this dad who's the quote, unquote, toxic parent. It's eventually going to solve itself. Because either there's one of three things that's going to happen. Either one, the kid is actually that good and he's going to continue to perform well and he's going to get all this attention. And at first I'm sure this dad's ego is going to be inflated even more. But like, how is that you addressing something with this dad and dealing with that? That, to me is only going to lead to, you know, negative things happening. So let that play itself out. If, if the kid is that good, eventually down the road, he's gonna have his own struggles too. And if that dad doesn't want to live on an island, he's gonna have to figure that piece out because no one's gonna want to deal with him because he's eventually. Let's just. Let's just read into the future and let's just say this kid actually is that good and he's going to get be the first overall pick in the draft. Well, if this dad is a really arrogant guy who just wants to tell everybody how great his kid is, at some point, whether it's through the draft, in the minor leagues, in the big leagues, that dad is going to realize I need to change my attitude or he's just going to. He's going to have nobody to talk to. People aren't going to want to associate with him, but it's going to figure itself out. So that's one scenario. The other scenario that I'd say on is on the opposite end of the spectrum is the kid stops developing entirely and he no longer is good at all. And maybe it's because of maturity or puberty, People catch up to him, they pass him. Eventually. This dad, I imagine, will probably blame other people first. But then if he really wants his kid to make it or participate in certain things, he's also going to have to look in the mirror and figure out, am I the problem? Now, I don't assume that the dad is just going to do that on his own. It may take the kids saying something to him, it may take the spouse saying something to him, it may take a coach saying something to him. But eventually, if he wants his kid to play and he's not that good, he's going to have to fall in line. And the kid's certainly going to have to, you know, focus on working hard and developing. If the third outcome happens, which Is, you know, he's okay, he continues to improve and you know, he's a good player, he's not a great player. Again, the same thing is going to happen. He's going to have to figure it out. Because the common denominator among all of these things, all of these potential outcomes is the dad is not going to be somebody that people are going to want to associate with if he's a pain. They're just not. Scouts won't deal with it. College coaches won't deal with it. Major league organizations won't deal with it. The, you, you know this kid, I think you said he said 10 years old, right? So at 10 years old, you're already articulating to me on this podcast that this is a problem. Other people see it too. So my answer for you is I would encourage you, don't even, don't put yourself in the middle of it. That's only going to lead to negative stuff. You know, I'm not sure if the, if your son and his son are friends, but you know, it has the potential to be a little bit of a disaster if they are. You know, maybe it's just more of a conflict for them. And so I would just stay away, let whatever's going to happen to them happen. You guys, focus on your own plan and let everything just kind of play itself out.
- [25:02]
B
The other thing I wanted to ask you about is I think a lot of parents label behavior from other parents who are very proud of their kids as toxic and it becomes threatening. And I think we've talked about this on the show too in previous episodes where parents are so important and so vital to their kids development and oftentimes yelling at your kid from the stand or coaching your kid up in front of other kids, or trying to be like the person that goes to your coach and correct the coach is actually harming your kid. I would assume that, that that's what we could label as toxic behavior because you're actually doing damage to the kid, not only to the coach and the kids relationship, but like I'm sure his teammates at 10 years old are like, like, dude, what is going on with your dad?
- [25:53]
A
Yeah, it's, hey, it's a great point and I think every parent, it's a good exercise is actually define what is toxic behavior from a parent. And I would write down what those characteristics are and then ask yourself, am I, am I doing any of these things? And if you are, look, this isn't to blame you, this isn't to shame you, but it's it's more awareness than anything. I, I know, and I've said this before, I don't believe any parent in this travel baseball world is doing anything other than trying to, you know, provide their kid an opportunity. Maybe it's one that they didn't have, but whatever it is, you're, you're doing this for a reason, and I believe it's because you think it's going to help your son. It would be a, a huge shame if you go through all of that trouble, we'll call it, and then don't even realize that part of the issue that your son was experiencing was actually you being a certain way. That just made the experience bad. Maybe it was the experience for the team, right? The other parents, the, the coaching staff don't be that person. So I, I, I think you want to be, I don't want to use the word vanilla, but, like, you want to be somebody who doesn't impact your son's career positively or negatively in anything other than, like, being supportive, right? If you're somebody who, here, here's a good, like, question to ask yourself. Am I somebody? When I go to the field, am I somebody that everybody would know is there? And if the answer to that is yes, I'm not saying that it's such a bad thing, but ask, okay, why are, do they know I'm here because when my son gets a hit, I'm clapping and I'm celebrating? Or, or do they know that I'm here because when my kid strikes out, I'm yelling at my kid? When the umpire makes a bad call, I'm chewing out the umpire. When the opposing coach on the other team says something to somebody on our team, I'm the first one to be at the fence and I'm yelling at the coach, do they know me because I am this really abrasive figure at the field? If the answer to that is yes, that's a problem, right? Nobody, whether people are going to tell you it or not, nobody wants to experience that guy. So you, Kevin, are somebody, it sounds like, who cares a lot, you know, even to ask this question. But at the same time, that doesn't necessarily mean that you also couldn't fall into this as well. And I'm not saying that you are. I'm merely saying as parents, we all have to just be aware of, you know, all it takes is one bad call, one bad tournament for us as parents to, to lose it. And maybe it wasn't even because of something going on in the field. Maybe it's because like something's going on at work and you're just got a bad phone call and you're. And you're pissed. Right. And so I just think we all need to kind of have some self awareness with this and just, you know, kind of take a step back and realize that we're in this for the kids and, and let that be the reason why we continue to show up.
- [28:40]
B
Yeah, I think that's a, that's a great answer, Matt. And, and such a great way for us to end today's episode. Thanks to all of you for sending in your questions. Matt, take us home.
- [28:51]
A
Yeah, so thanks, guys. I mean, again, we're going to continue to do these episodes. I think they're, from what I've heard anyways, I don't want to, you know, say that they're valuable. We've heard that parents are getting a ton out of these episodes. So if there's something specific that you guys want us to address on future episodes, by all means send us a DM, even in the comment section on YouTube. You know, we kind of go through there and we, we figure out, we pick out certain questions that we think are going to resonate with the audience. So I'd be happy to cover that stuff for you. Also, one other thing I want to make mention is we are now going to start doing, and we've just recorded our first one, travel baseball. Families are going to be coming on the podcast. So if I'm in the city that you're in, we'll have you come on in person. We all, we are also going to do stuff that's going to be virtual. But if you guys want us to have a podcast where we address specific things that you guys are dealing with as a family. And the one that we just did was with the father and the son. But if it's the mother and the son, the mother, the father and the son, whoever it is, we want to make sure that that's something that you guys are aware of. So if that is of interest to you, make sure that you DM us or send us an email. And yeah, we, we'd love to talk to you guys about potentially having you on in the future. So as, as I know that you guys all know if you've seen this podcast before, but if you're new here, everything that we are doing is to try to make your guys experience in travel baseball a little bit easier. At the end of the day, what we want is, you know, strong families and smart kids. So that's what we're here for. So I appreciate it. If you like this episode, make sure that you, like, subscribe if you haven't done so already and share. Send this to a parent who you know who would benefit from it. So until next time, guys, appreciate you.