Parenting
I was reading Finding Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and he offers a great perspective on parenting.
He says, "Parenting is supposed to be one of the most rewarding experiences in life; but it isn't, unless one approaches it with the same attention as one would a sport or an artistic performance."
I'd never thought about parenting as a sport, but I like it. And I think you realize that like athletics it is hard--it takes lots of effort and energy--but the payoff is worth it.
Mihaly says, "To experience such simple pleasures of parenting, one has to pay attention, to know what the child is 'proud of,' what she is 'into'; then one has to devote more attention to share those activities with her."
I sat down with Parker yesterday and he taught me how to draw comics. It's not really "my thing." But I knew it was "his thing" so I invested the time and attention. Here is a simple rule of thumb: if it's important to my kid's it's important.
He says, "Parenting is supposed to be one of the most rewarding experiences in life; but it isn't, unless one approaches it with the same attention as one would a sport or an artistic performance."
I'd never thought about parenting as a sport, but I like it. And I think you realize that like athletics it is hard--it takes lots of effort and energy--but the payoff is worth it.
Mihaly says, "To experience such simple pleasures of parenting, one has to pay attention, to know what the child is 'proud of,' what she is 'into'; then one has to devote more attention to share those activities with her."
I sat down with Parker yesterday and he taught me how to draw comics. It's not really "my thing." But I knew it was "his thing" so I invested the time and attention. Here is a simple rule of thumb: if it's important to my kid's it's important.
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