Everyone has interests and passions. Maybe these are activities we participated in as children or maybe they are activities we didn’t take part in until we became an adult. Regardless, they are hobbies or recreational activities that bring us joy, increase our creativity or fill our free time. Although YOU might not consider yourself an expert at these skills but you have developed knowledge that would be good to share with your children or grandchildren.
As parents and grandparents, we are very unselfish. We make most of our focus on the children. Sometimes, this is paramount and absolutely necessary. However, there is nothing wrong with sharing your interests with the children in your life for a few reasons. First, for you to share something you have a background expands a child’s horizon. Why keep all of that knowledge to yourself. Whether they become interest or not, you are teaching them about something they may not have know otherwise. Secondly, it shows a child that YOU have interests too and that you are a normal person who does more than work and parent/grandparent. It allows them to see another part of you and they can see you get excited about the things you are involved in that bring you some happiness. As they see you tackle a subject, they are seeing for their own eyes, that they are not only learning new sports, musical instruments and hobbies but you too are still learning as an adult. You can inspire a love of learning. Lastly, you are saying to them, ‘I am someone too who has interests and things going on in my life that you can ask me about.’ It’s a good thing for kids to learn to ask adults about what’s going on in their life, it’s not all about them.’
It’s very normal for a child to be very self centered. It’s their nature and of course it would be with parents and all of the other adults in their life teaching, training and parenting a child. That’s just what we do and how the parenting/raising children thing happens as we only have so much time to teach a child all the things they need to know before they depart from home. When your children see you taking time out to do something good for you, you are sending the message that other people have things they look forward to. It gives them something for you to talk about with them and if they develop an interest, maybe even share an interest and connect.
We started with a painting lesson on colors and shapes. The girls had some time to work on their lesson and then they had time to work on a painting project of their choice. We added a nice Yacht Rock playlist in the background and it made for a fun February Saturday afternoon ❤️
Over the weekend, I spent some time with two our grandchildren. We decided that we would spend some time on Saturday painting. I got all of the supplies out, decided on a short lesson with an activity and then time for them to create their own painting. Instruction was kept to brief and age appropriate for a four and five year old. My goal was for the activity to be short and fun so that it didn’t drag on. I wanted them to have fun and something to look forward to for another future session. Mission accomplished. After we had our ‘lesson/session’ where we learned about colors and shapes, I saw the girls walking around the house looking at some of the paintings in our home painted by their great-grandparents and myself, commenting on the colors and shapes. Bingo, we developed a little interest.
You may not think much of the interests you have but they could be of interest to the children in your life. You also may not think you know all that much, but start teaching and you may just realize that you know quite a bit. And you may even come to find that it could make for a Great Day 🍎
