I think I saw the seeds of an idea being planted in my boy’s head yesterday.
We were at a groovin’ party that had an actual live band. There were oodles of kids of all ages, and my four were in with the rest, drinking root beer, clowning around and having the sort of time kids always have when they’re unsupervised at a grownup party. Tee found a gang of like-minded boys to practice skateboard tricks with (these cool cats actually built a half-pipe in their backyard, talk about a kid magnet) but the moment he noticed the band setting up, he abandoned his friends and skinnied up the tree house so that he could watch. He sat there, mesmerized, watching every move those young men made, and then turned to me with a gleam in his eye saying, “Didja see those drums?”
As a parent you can do your best to expose your kids to the things you think they should know about. You can read to them, take them to cultural events, bring them up in the neighborhood you think is best, whatever, but ultimately, it’s impossible to predict which moments end up being the ones that spark an interest. I often wonder what about their childhoods my kids will remember, which things will loom large and which will be forgotten. Even now, they sometimes tell me about something I said that was terribly important to them that I don’t have any recollection of, or want to reminisce about some event or other that I don’t even remember happening.
I wonder which of their random experiences will end up being the life altering ones. I hope someday I’ll find out.
team effort 