Parents, do you make a regular effort to teach your child to be awesome?

unless their parents managed to teach them that screaming and crying was the only way to get attention, most of the kids I know are already pretty awesome.

Also, I find that kids tend to develop strong interests on their own, if you let them, and as I see it, encouraging those interests can only lead to good things.

yea, i definitely mean BEYOND their interests. I’m not talking about fun things as per se.. more about.. life skills. modern day survival skills, really.

things that make them useful as members of a community in times of need.

My mother has taught me that it is not necessary to like everyone, but it is necessary to be nice. She has taught me how to deal with people and situations that I do not like but cannot change and she has taught me how to adapt to situations I have not previously encountered.

I think I’m pretty awesome because of it. :)

My son has been doing his own laundry since he was 10. He started raking, mowing, shoveling snow and washing cars at 8 years old, at 14 he got his working papers, and at 17 he has a job, and he continues to do odd jobs and trying to develop business ideas. He’s a hard worker and pretty resourceful. He and I have been through a lot, and I’m proud if him, even if he’s not “awesome” in other people’s eyes.

I think parents just need to allow their children to be and they will be awesome.

no, she’s awesome all by herself ;)

I do try to teach her languages (with great success, she speaks 4) and some simple arithmetics (an utter failure). Also some basic geography, religion, mythology, astronomy and history. She picks everything except the numbers up pretty fast.

She loves routine, so it was easy to teach her to go to the toilet alone, tidy up her room, brush her teeth and even put on her own nappie before bed.

In terms of behaviour, the big issue was explaining what she wants without crying, and sharing things with others (something I still have not managed). She’s generally well-behaved though. Though stubborn sometimes.

Is this an opportunity to brag a little? I don’t want to be that mom… Ok, I’m gonna do it. My 1.5 year old son enjoys learning so much that we are constantly giving him new information and different views of things. He can say the alphabet, count to 20, knows colors and shapes, and has a massive vocabulary. He can read his name and a few other words.

We don’t push him. When he gets tired of doing one thing, we move onto a fun activity or snack time. But, I would love nothing more than to see my son be successful by his own definition in life. All we can do is give him all the opportunities we know how to give him. When he’s older, that may include a talent of mine or his dad’s that he chooses.

My mama did. :D

She asked us questions, made us think about why we felt things, why we did things, and what we wanted. Down to food, clothes, everything. Within reason. We were free to be ourselves and jump in mud puddles in the rain, fence with wooden swords through our trees and front lawn, swing through branches and get banged up in ways kids nowadays don’t seem to. We were responsible for ourselves and what we did. We learned to share and in my case learned when not to so as to avoid being taken advantage of.

The lesson of knowing yourself, thinking about your reasons, never react but rather act was the most important.

In addition to their inborn awesomeness(I’m not boasting or anything. Wanna see their pictures?), my kids have been raised with the belief that it is important to try new stuff, especially when you are a kid. Otherwise how will you know what you like to do when you grow up?

In addition to introducing them to many aspects of the world, I also try to determine what their innate abilities and interests are and encourage them. That way I get to learn new things, too. Hence, I was the only mom in the elementary PTA who really knew what a Hemi is thanks to my son, and I have become an actress thanks to my daughter.

Oh, and my mom also taught me to always try something once, whether it’s food or skydiving. I have hated eggs my entire life, and randomly at Denny’s I decided to try them over easy.

They were delicious.

Damn it.

@ubersiren, that truly is awesome! Mine is 4 and can barely count to 10 (she always remembers to say all the numbers, but does so in random order). I like to interpret it as a sign of creativity.

yeah but asmonet, this is why you ended up being a Paleoanthropologist with a side love for astrophysics and astronomy and no hope of ever getting laid :P

I think I will forbid my daughter to learn any more number names.

Haha, your daughter is freaking adorable. Tape that stuff. That’s gonna be fun for the college grad party. :)

I’d rather bust some elitist ass in the field than get laid any day. ;)

Priorities, dude. Priorities.

@Jack79 : Creativity it is! Yeah, I always feel sort of bad when we’re around my friends’ older kids who don’t have some of that stuff down yet. But, I figure we won’t be this lucky with all of our future kids. As long as they graduate high school, I’ll be happy. And, sometimes he’s a little Hellbeast, so that negates some of his accomplishments.

I had a friend who had a very bright little girl. Then he had a son, perfectly normal kid. They were so worried he was mentally retarded or something because they kept comparing him to the sister. I think all people have EXACTLY the same total amount of talents, abilities and potential. My daughter is so bad with numbers because she’s so good with languages (and vice versa). And there are kids who might be bad at both but have better health, better luck or some other gift that will only be seen in the future. It’s all balanced out in the end.

@Jack79 : Haha.. that’s exactly how it seems to be from family to family. You’re spot on.

Um, yeah. I so have my kids watch anything and everything with Chuck Norris in it. Awesome.

to be caring and sensitive
to see a need and know how to meet it
to take care of his feet
to know how to tickle
to laugh with complete abandon
to not care what anyone else thinks…too much

augustlan’s kids are awesome! I want to see her weigh in on this question.

@asmonet: That reflects the other part of how I raised my son (it sounds like I raised him to be a workhorse). I did allow him to play in the mud and explore the world. We made 4 different trips to the ER for stitches! I bought those walkie-talkies with a 2-mile radius so he could explore the area in and around our neighborhood like we did when we were kids, but still was within reach.

When he was little, he’d say “I want that” foor every commercial that came on Nickelodeon. As a single mom, I didn’t have money and I assured him that most of it was junk. Once he started earning an allowance (at 6 years old) and his extra money from his odd jobs, I allowed him to make his own purchase decisions. Ultimately, he learned that I was right—it was crap, no matter how cool the ads made it seem. So now he’s a fairly discerning consumer.

I also taught him to be accountable for his actions. His teachers always seemed so tentative when they called home to discuss a misbehavior, and so relieved when I told them that I respect that they have to keep order in their classroom, and that they could deal with my son’s mouth as they deemed necessary.

Shit, she teaches me. I hope to one day be as awesome as she is.

@hearkat: We had those radios, we went to the ER, we had fun ass time. All I can say is, I dig yo style, mama.

My son is young, he is so awesome he invented his own language. He learns at his own pace, and his problem solving skills are out of this world. He’s definitely stubborn, and we’ve been working on words with him..he’ll ignore me completely and then one day and walk up to me and start talking. He has at least 4 sentences that he can say already…but refuses to say “ball” Drives me crazy lol.

I hope he just develops into his own person. I can’t wait to find out his interests. We think he’s very musically inclined, so we’ll be getting piano lessons and let him go from there.
He’s already awesome, in my opinion.

Aren’t there any insensitive people with poor parenting skills here? Everyone seems so perfect. I’m so tempted to make fun of the way my kids are—you know, keep them in a dungeon and throw them slops kind of thing.

Maybe all kids are just amazing these days. It’s true that, on average, every generation is smarter and more capable than the preceding generation. Our kids are probably more beautiful that we are, too. When I look at the pictures of the younger folks here, it blows me away. Every one of them could be a model.

There are hundreds or thousands of life skills to teach. We’ve focussed (if there could be one focus) on caring and empathy. It’s very rewarding when strangers come up to comment on how lovely and well-behaved our kids are.

However, what really floats my boat, is like yesterday morning, and both kids (ages 12 and 9) were at the piano, playing “Heart and Soul.” It’s amazing to see them play together, not just musically, but also normal kid play. Anyway, I went down to join them, and there were three of us on the piano, and I can’t even begin to describe how that feeling just filled me up, like helium fills a baloon. I want to play forever with them (music, this time).

My son has gone through so many interests that I don’t remember them all: rocks, paper airplanes, paper cutting, crystal growing, and now he is working like a demon to teach himself to draw. He gets so pissed at himself when it isn’t up to his standards, and he’s improving so fast. It’s kind of funny—with piano, he can resist against me, but with drawing, since he chose it himself, he can only resist against himself or get mad at himself.

My daughter is one of those voracious readers (son hates reading). She is so good at school that one teacher spent half an hour gushing about her to us. She is an amazing writer, artist, and musician, and now she’s teaching herself film making. Good lord. Sometimes I wonder if we serve any function at all! Pop the kids out, and let them run!

@daloon Your children sound amazing. I just think it’s beautiful watching them learn..the intensity and curiousity is something I can’t even put into words.

“on average, every generation is smarter and more capable than the preceding generation.”

We all must live in Lake Wobegon, where…

”...all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.” – Garrison Keillor

The world is Lake Wobegon, and it leaves me feeling a little bit left behind.

loved that comment, daloon!
slowly but steadily i’m building up my case for having kids. thanks for all your responses so far.

The greatest honor and privilege of my life is raising my three girls. I consider it my sacred duty to turn out decent human beings by the time they are grown. Their father and I are divorced, but are both very involved in their lives. He is probably more responsible for teaching them the concrete life skills they will need (organization, goal-setting), while I am more responsible for the ‘soft’ skills (independent thought, empathy). He is a musician and has taught them to appreciate music. I am a reader and have taught them to appreciate language. He is adventurous, and takes them boating and on motorcycle rides. I live largely in my head, and have deep philosophical conversations with them. I’d like to think they are getting a well-rounded upbringing, and that it will be to their benefit.

@Jack79 I did the same damn thing as your friend! My first two children were gifted (which I claim no credit for), so I thought my third was behind. Turns out she is well above grade level, and has great insight into human behavior. I felt like such an idiot.

@MacBean Awww… thanks!