It’s certainly not “convenient” parenting. Raising kids according to their personal giftings will lead you down some “adventurous” and “interesting” paths.
If your kid is a curious child, you may end up with many ‘collections’ before they settle on the one they like most through the years.
If your child is mechanically inclined, you may end up with a mini ‘garbage dump’ somewhere in your place of habitation.
Got a scientific mind in the family? It may lead to hazardous chemicals that cannot be shipped via airplane being delivered “carefully” to your door.
Melting down metal and other materials for molds…
IF you’re raising kids according to their personal giftings…
We call it ‘the lab’…
there’s always a project being created…
You might end up with a rock band in your basement, a magician’s lab in the corner and a kitchen that is always wrecked by the latest recipe.
Just a fraction of the equipment currently in our basement for our son’s band…
the upside to always having a messy kitchen is that there is usually something good to eat at all times…
You’ll have pets.
Casper has earned his place in this crazy family along with the dog and fish!
You’ll have paint on the chairs and rocks as decorations, paper strewn everywhere, fabric in bins and glue everywhere because raising kids according to their giftings means letting them explore enough to discover those gifts.
IF you can relax and accept the process, you’ll have fun too. And you’ll be in awe of how your child’s mind works…
IF you raise them according to their giftings.
I once had a mother say to me, “You’re so brave the way you let your kids be creative, I would have NEVER allowed my child to have a drum set in our house!”
I kind of giggled to myself because if she only KNEW how much I was wanting to throw those drums into the trash that week!
It’s not always convenient to let them go out, get dirty and be FREE- but it is ALWAYS worth it!
I admit, it hasn’t always been easy. Like the time one of my sons thought it’s be great to ‘decorate’ his dresser with all the cool skateboarding stickers he had spent years collecting. At the time, I thought it was AWFUL to do that to a piece of furniture. Now? I look at it with admiration and wouldn’t move ONE sticker because it sort of looks like an old suitcase that has traveled many places.
Perspective.
Or how I’d become furious every time I went to print something and we were out of printer paper– my thoughtful son was drawing endless pictures and cartoons and writing notes for everyone in the family. His creative mind and loving heart won me over and he can have all the paper he wants now.
The musician in our family crashed our home computers 4 times while he was learning– he now has his own computer and rarely has an issue with it.
For the longest time, I wanted a fireplace and a mantle that I could decorate seasonally. When I finally got it, one of my creatives took over and started adorning it with clay-mation figures and Lego creations.
It hasn’t been ‘convenient’ for me.
But it has been satisfying.
Mama- don’t discourage their curiosity or creativity, let them explore it, even if it is inconvenient for you.
There’s a reason why their heart pulls them in a certain directions and they need to know why.
Eventually, all those building projects, crafts, science endeavors and magic tricks WILL lead to something- in our case, the child that explored all those things has come to the conclusion that CAD design, engineering and electrical work are for him.
The child that needed all the latest software and gadgets and every instrument and musical equipment is now a songwriter and gifted musician.
Another is heading down the path of writing screenplays and story lines for video games and also dabbles in composing film scores.
It all sounds very impressive, but it’s been a creative and “inconvenient” process to get there. Discovering their gifts and talents has, at times, turned our household upside down– but I wouldn’t have it any other way. The freedom of unhindered learning that they’ve experienced has been so refreshing and full of life.
Messy kitchen, but good eats and happy kids!
Hard at work writing and composing…
that time the fire pit became a ‘castle’ for the day…
If you want to raise your children according to their giftings, you’ve got to be willing to get out of the way, many times, literally out of the way! Ha! We’ve been called “eclectic” and “unschoolers”, and even though the children have core subjects that must be studied daily with a Charlotte Mason approach, it’s mostly true. I like to say that we are honing in on their God-given giftings and talents, which a standard or traditional way of schooling doesn’t always allow for.
And I don’t think we will ever do anything differently.
Leave a Reply