When my son was two years old, I gave him a book about dinosaurs — one of those Usborne lift-the-flap books with really obscure species in it. By the time he was two and three months old, he knew every single one.

During COVID, he'd run full pelt down the road on our daily walks. Roaring. Not making noise — roaring. Because he wasn't a two-year-old on a walk. He was a dinosaur.

At age five he was getting up before everyone else in the house to play Mozart on guitar. Nobody had ever taught him. He'd worked it out entirely by ear.

At age six he got a distinction in his Grade 4 classical guitar exam.

And then he stopped playing entirely.

This episode is about what happens when the world notices a gift in a neurodivergent child — and then accidentally takes it away. About the genius label and the pressure it creates. About the strategies we found to keep the love alive without the expectation. About music time with daddy, which has no grades and no rules and no agenda.

And it's about who he actually is underneath all of it. The boy who picks up bottles on forest walks because he wants to help. The boy whose goal in life is to make millions — not for himself, but to give to homeless and cancer charities.

This is for every parent who has watched the world try to point their child toward outcomes. Keep their eyes on the love. The love is the whole point.

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You are not alone. 🤍