Passions are very important in everyone’s life – this is especially true for children. They can be a driving force for self-development.
Unfortunately, when it comes to children, you have to be very careful when trying to make them fall in love with an activity. It is easy to create a pressurized atmosphere in which the child no longer enjoys what he or she is doing. How to wisely support children’s passions?
Gaining a passion in life can make a person feel a deeper sense of life and the will to act. Passions and interests change more often in children than in adults. This is normal and results from learning about the world, where many things can be interesting at the same time. Regardless of what our kids like, we should approach it calmly. There should be no room here for either ignoring these interests or trying to exploit them, for example in order to give the child a “better start in the future”.
So if a child is interested in playing the guitar, we should wisely support him in this and be happy about it. There is no point in discouraging him or trying hard to make him a virtuoso. Developing interests is also an opportunity to increase self-confidence – we cannot take that away from the child by our reckless behaviour.
It is not worth treating a child’s interests as a passing whim. Yes, it is possible that in a few weeks something completely new will appear in their place, but there is no certainty about that. Who knows if anime, skateboarding, or drawing won’t turn out to be lifelong passions? They may also, although it happens much less often, lead our child to greater or lesser success in the future. Everything will become clear as time goes by.
It is a big mistake on the part of parents to ignore the passions that their children are interested in. Sometimes it does not come from a negative attitude, but from lack of time or the fact that adults do not have much idea about the areas in which children are excited. Most often, however, it doesn’t take much time or expertise to show interest.
Just asking what a game, show, or play is actually about is a step in the right direction. They show that adults are not indifferent to issues important to children. A thread of understanding is formed, and the parent is treated as a confidant. A simple conversation can mean a lot. It is also important to be able to experience together with the child his or her successes and failures on the way to fulfillment in his or her own passion. Actively accompanying him will certainly pay off and be appreciated in the future
There is no special reason to interfere with your child’s chosen passions, even if they don’t seem too serious to us. Of course, these cannot be things that threaten him or seriously affect, for example, his performance in school. Control is important where the safety of the youngest is concerned.
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Part of finding a common language with your child may be to make it easier for him to practice his passions. We can even combine it with something useful – for example, improving school results, outdoor activities or taking better care of tidiness in the room. If in return we buy him something related to his interests or go somewhere with him, it will be better than prohibitions and orders
Remember that in our childhood world, small passions and interests also played an important role. That’s why it can sometimes be interesting for our kids to tell them about our experiences in the past.
