My husband and I have had the distinct pleasure of raising two sons. They are 16 ½ months apart in age, and though their little personalities were distinctly different, we assumed that their interests would be similar. So, when they were young, we enrolled them in activities we believed every little boy loved; baseball, basketball, and gymnastics.
For a while, they seemed like they both loved what they were involved in because they always went along happily. We thought that their different approaches to activities was just reflective of their personalities. But, there were signals along the way that revealed that our very unique children could possibly have different interests. Our older son was quite the athlete and took sports very seriously, even at a young age. Our younger son, though he was very coordinated and even exceptional at gymnastics, had a different approach to sports. He would sit in the outfield and lace wild flowers through his baseball glove. When I would call to him to “get in the game, Jer”, he would smile with delight, wave his glove, and stand up in the field. Flowers still laced.
The light went on one day when my husband related a conversation he had with a friend on a business trip who was sharing stories about his twins. He spoke about their differences, different interests, and how he and his wife offered diverse opportunities to help them identify their curiosities. We really were very attentive parents and realized at that moment that we had lived under the assumption that our two very different little boys would like the same things. Fortunately, they were still very young, ages four and five, so we didn’t totally miss the boat on parenting. We started to expose them to an array of experiences in hopes that it would reveal a special interest or talent…and it did. As we studied our sons’ curiosities and talents, we discovered that they did have a few similar interests in common, as well as some very different ones. From that moment on, our boys did not just play sports. The arts became much more a part of our lives and our children thrived.
We can have a lot of assumptions about people…even our own children that are the closest to us. Take time to listen to someone’s heart this week. You may be surprised by what you learn about them.
Stories changing lives!