Is there a King Richard in your life?

Sweet Hubby and I recently watched the excellent film "King Richard", which dramatizes Serena and Venus Williams' journey from childhood to adult fame as tennis stars.  Their father, played by Will Smith, is portrayed as completely and unwaveringly devoted to their development as players.  He recognizes who they can be, and devotes his life to making sure their considerable promise is fulfilled.

I found myself wondering what these girls' lives would have been like if they had not had someone in their corner, someone committed to them as girls, as tennis players, as women.  Even as naturally talented as they were as girls, could they possibly have risen to the heights of both skill and renown they reached under their father's tutelage if they had been left to develop on their own?  They had old equipment, they played on shitty courts, and who would look for future tennis stars in Compton, CA? 

How many other children with innate talents, creativity, and intelligence founder and fail because they don't have someone cheering them on, someone who is completely confident in their eventual success?  How many children are left behind, end up living inglorious, mundane lives, their extraordinariness never discovered, never nurtured, never praised and urged on?

I think this may be partly why I have never wanted to be a parent.  I had a sense that a person's life isn't wholly about her any more once she becomes a parent, and I never trusted that I could be as unselfish as a parent needs to be.  I don't expect every parent to give her entire self to her child or children, as Richard Williams has to his girls.  But I know children deserve to have primary focus in a parent's life, to be loved and supported and cheered on, to have the chance to develop whatever gifts they may have.  It would be so great if everybody had a King Richard rooting for her.