Helping child find a "passion"

timely
Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:36:51 +0000

I think passion is a wonderful gift if one stumbles upon it-- wouldn’t we all want that feeling or for our kids to have that feeling? But I also think it is way over-rated nowadays and really gets my goat.

ditto. I wouldn’t say that I’ve really ever had a singular passion. I’ve had passions from time to time, I suppose. Some lasted for a few hours and some for a few years. None of them blossomed until I was probably 30-ish. Homeschooling our kids might be an exception; I was passionate about that for 15 years. But now that’s done. I have been passionate about decorating for the past few months (too much HGTV), but I think I’m over that. I am too distractable to really be passionate about one thing; instead, I seem to end up doing everything. Nevertheless, I am happy and fulfilled.

Starbright, my D sounds just like yours. She is just creative in everything she does. When we were homeschooling her, if I’d assign a report, she’d ask if she could do a Powerpoint instead. They were gorgeous, she included all the pertinent info, and she did lots of writing on her own (another creative thing), so I didn’t care whether she wrote the report or not. She played the piano and the harp, but didn’t want to do the tedious work of perfecting her pieces. She is married now, and her apartment is so cute the way she decorated it. She buys canvas and paints simple stylized designs on them, and has even sold some of them. She blogs and does photography. She loved a jewelry box she saw online, so she bought some stuff and made herself one. And this one cracks me up… She loves Project Runway, so she’s gotten interested in sewing. She decided she needed a dress form, so she put on a big t-shirt and had her H wrap duct tape around and around her. Then he cut the t-shirt and duct tape up the back, she slipped out of it, taped it back together and stuffed it with sheets. Now she has a dress form. She didn’t go to college, and isn’t even employed (military wife living in Germany), but she’s making a nice life for herself.

As for helping others, I tried more or less unsuccessfully to instill this passion in our kids. Maybe they’ll catch it later.