Hi Everyone. Hope you are doing good. First of all Thank you all of you for giving us great comments on our article “Ways to identify, nurture and transform child’s hobbies into skillsets”. It was really overwhelming to see those amazing comments and more than this, I am amazed that you all of you liked it so much and this article even benefitted you a lot. I was reading all the comments and I was able to see that few asked for a part 2 of this article and hence I am back with Part 2 of the same article but with some more information and with deeper conversations.

Alright, so let’s begin with the same. So, in the last topic we discussed briefly upon certain points that parents can take to identify child’s hobbies and then once identified, how can parents nurture their hobbies and transform them into skill sets. Well now that you are aware of all those points mentioned in my previous article, you will be easily able to relate to the points that I will discuss below now. Let’s have some deeper discussions on the same

1) Multiple Skillsets/ hobbies or Passions: Okay, so kids having multiple skillsets or hobbies or Passions are extremely normal. And trust me, few parents worry about which skillset means a lot to my kid. And sometimes parents even gets frustrated seeing their kids having multiple skill sets or if they wanted to pursue multiple hobbies or Passions and out of frustration, we parents tend to pass some early comments to our kids stating “Are you not clear which one do you like the most?” OR “Why are you so confused and out of confusion why are you wasting your time and efforts and moreover our money as well?”. Are these not your questions as parents? Well, I would say don’t blame yourselves for these questions because I understand that you ask these questions our of care and even to help your kids for bit more clarity as well. But you know what, we can try some different approach as well to deal with these issues. But here the entire understanding lies with parents rather kids. As parents we should let children decide which one they like the most. Forget about liking the best one, trust me that even kids, they know that which hobby or passion requires more efforts and which one they can pursue for future as well. It’s just like that they are extremely kiddish to even understand or discuss because they are just trying and if we as parents come in between and instruct them based on our experiences or opinions then WE are choosing for our kids which they might not like in future and may have future contradictions. Hence I would suggest leave it on them and see how far they can go for each hobby. The hobby which goes far with them is the ONE which your kids want to pursue. Try to understand with an example- For example, your kids have 2 hobbies- Painting and another one take singing. Now your kid is pursuing both and likes both but neither your kid knows and nor you know which is the one which is close to your kid’s heart. Now see, don’t just stop on these minimalistic questions. Try to get deeper and with time even your kid will understand deeper once they will start pursuing their hobbies with time. There are efforts associated with both the hobbies. With Painting, children may tend to buy different types of colors or shades or brushes or color palettes etc which might cost money. But with singing, children will tend to spend more time understanding as to which sort of music they love and can sing. They need to put in a lot of practise which may not cost money but their precious time and they even need to curb some of their food cravings like eating ice creams or cold drinks to ensure that their voice remains melodious. And later on this kid even needs to face audience as well. Now let your kids decide, what do they want and how much and what part they can invest to pursue the same in future?

2) Study Management along with Hobby Management: I have often seen that parents tend to worry on how to manage their kids hobbies along with pressuring studies as well. My opinion on this is that If time is managed appropriately then both can be managed easily. And plus to avoid anxiety on this, you should have altogether a different mindset of not overweighing one on the another. You should neither weigh study on top of hobbies and nor hobbies on top of studies. Make your kids neutral as to balance of both are important to kids. There is no known phenomena that kids who are good in studies are not good in their hobbies or kids who spend more time pursuing their hobbies can easily deviate from their studies. It all depends on where kids focus their minds on. Study time means study and hobby time means hobbies and this understanding of clear demarcation is parent’s responsibility. Never restrict your child to a boundary. Let them exceed their boundaries and fly high. Let your kids understand the importance of both and even balancing both. And rest, leave on time

3) Open Mindset to an idea if your kids are pursuing hobbies more than studies: As explained above, please do not feel uncomfortable when your child is trying to pursue his/ her hobbies more than studies. However, You should be worrying when the child is pursuing hobby at the cost of studies. There is this wide difference between giving more time on hobbies or simply just putting hobbies above studies and you as a parent should know the difference. There are many kids that I have seen who put lot of time on studies but they don’t obtain good results but on the other hand there are so many kids who give half time to their studies but obtain great results. So, please understand that giving more time to studies don’t matter. What matters is how productive your child was when spending time on studies. And plus, take this for a pleasant example- Supposingly when your child wants to play cricket all the time, we as parents get angry but what happens when that same child of your’s plays for your country. Don’t you feel proud? So, this is the difference.

4) Breaking myth of a correlation between the Job that the child gets and Marks obtained in school/ high school/ Colleges: Okay, so lots of parents worry about this thing. They always pressurise their kids to obtain 100/100 in all aspects of studies. Because they think that if their kids will get excellent marks than their kids can beat best paying jobs as well. But please do not forget that marks obtained on some scorecard of their schools were based on specific content of studies which ofcourse is bound to change with time. So, how can marks save a best job for your kids? Being upgraded or up to date on their skill sets with changing times are important to save best paying job for your kid. Do you understand that a basic car driving becomes a skill set and even this skillset can pay you the best. Have you ever noticed how much money does a person who makes you roam around on mountains make? I am sure you will try to know. So, please take this for sure that obtaining good marks can just make your kid stand out of the crowd and can beat the eligibility criteria so that your kid is eligible enough to atleast have a chance to give an interview for a job. But I believe you know that this is same for both the kids (a kid who obtained 100/100 and even for that kid who obtained 70/100) and then rest depends on how well your child clears an interview based on their verbal skillsets and may be on experiential level. I am the best example for this scenario. I am just a plain simple graduate in science but currently I am working in an IT Infrastructure field which means that there is simply no correlation between my studies and my job that I am currently doing. So, please do not pressurise your kids to only study. Let them focus on building up their skillsets out of their hobbies as well.

5) Linking child Hobbies directly with the money and respect they can earn post transforming hobby into a skillset: This is the most common thing that I have seen with most of the parents. All the parents want their kids to be engineers/ doctors/ lawyers/ Fasion designers etc. But do you think it happens all the time. What if your kids don’t want to become any of these? What if they want to open an NGO/ What if they want to become a photographer/ What if they want to do become an entrepreneur/ What if your kid wants to pursue creativity as their career? I know these questions makes you confuse and you as parents tend to get worried. Here please calm down and understand the basic things first. You can forcefully make your kid pursue the studies for becoming a doctor. But do you think that the child will be productive while doing studies or will he be successfully clearing the degree with flying colors? My answer is NO. The main reason here is “Satisfaction”. The child will be more satisfied while pursuing a hobby but will get bored and tired with forceful studies of becoming a doctor and hence not productive at all. The same happens when kids began to earn their living. They might earn a way more than their needs or have a big luxurious car with a big bungalow but they will never get satisfaction or happiness deep within and this will make them someone who is running after only to earn money or their living and believe me these kids in their adulthood turn out to be more frustrated individuals. And who says that those kids who pursue their hobbies earn less? I am sure you have loads of experiences around you. The famous cricketers/ football players/ movie actors/ choreographers and singers. Are they not making money but making money along with this satisfaction deep within is altogether a different experience. So, You don’t worry. Let your child choose what he wants and Let him Be. Respect is not associated with the profession because every profession is respectable as they give an individual an earning medium. Respect is directly associated with how well your take your profession.

6) Check for child’s priority and information level: This is one of the most important point to observe in your kids when they are struggling to choose between multiple hobbies. This tends to happen with everyone of us where if we are more interested in something then we always prioritise that hobby and always tends to collect more and more information from any source that we can get. This hobby always take a highest edge on anything. So, watchout on your kids.

7) Last but not the least, avoid your child getting influenced for some hobby: This is also most important thing. Your child shall pursue something only when the child has a burning urge for the same. A burning urge comes from within and lasts for a lifetime while being influenced lasts only for sometime and if the child fails while getting influenced then the child gets a setback and may stop trying for his genuine bobbies as well because fear of failure sets in. But the truth was that the kid was not even knowing as to what he wanted from deep within.

I hope you all liked my second part as well. Please let me know more topics or anything else that you want me to write upon