Help—I'm Jealous of My Own Kid!

You’re trying to give your kids the best: karate lessons, top schools, the latest video games. “You couldn't be prouder, really,” writes Christopher Noxon in Details, until “it hits you: you’re jealous.” Your childhood was never this good, and now, as your kid expands his horizons, you’re sitting on the sidelines. "They know the difference between sushi and sashimi while you struggle to hang on, wincing from an Achilles tendon strained playing H-O-R-S-E."

The kids “are living a life of arts and leisure, and I'm living a life of grindstone and stress,” notes one father. What’s a dad to do? Let “your kids off the hook,” suggests a psychologist. “In the end, it's not jealousy—it's sadness for whatever you wish you had.” After all, notes Noxon, "whereas our dads asked us why we'd ever need a Fender, we watch from the wings as Junior shreds through the Green Day catalog." Recognize that, and the anger stops. “You can appreciate that what you're doing is providing what your parents weren't able to."
(More father stories.)