How can I make my kids take a hobby? What are active and passive hobbies?
A hobby is by definition the pursuit of an activity done regularly in one’s leisure time for pleasure. So ‘making’ your kid ‘take a hobby’ is by itself an oxymoron. The word OXYMORON has no connection with the latter half of the word. It in no way refers to a mental ability. Oxymoron is a figure of speech in which two words with opposite meanings are used intentionally for effect.
A deeply superficial person! The shelf is completely empty! It’s pure garbage!
I distinctly recall forgetting it. All this is a direct digress! Right?!
So let us focus on the topic.
Should I as a parent then, watch my kid lazing around on the sofa watching TV and do nothing about it? No, certainly not. The Bhagavad Gita says — Karmanyeva Adhikaste Maa Phaleshu Kadachana — meaning you have control of your actions only and not the fruits of your action. We tend to forget that wise dictum when it comes to our kids. Why can’t he do what I ask him to do? We tear at our hair!
Before signing up for a hobby — What do I need to be prepared for?
Hobbies involve expenditure. How much money are you willing to spare? Classes, equipment, uniforms! Whew, stuff costs money. Have a budget.
Hobbies need time. You may have to escort the child to the classes. You may have to help the child understand the teacher-instructions better.
Hobbies need involvement. Ideally your child must find joy in the activity and not look for appreciation. But then how many of us are ideal? Track your child’s progress. Listen to his latest tune. Record her Taekwondo kick. Clap. Praise. Applaud.
Hobbies need growth. In the area of interest, Find how-to videos, Find experts recorded on media, share such videos with your child. Such inputs are motivating and help improve — a joyous share.
You can only guide, encourage, motivate, shout, scold, — you cannot make the kids enjoy what they do.
Happiness in a hobby comes from within.
How to make my kid take up a hobby?
Enroll into classes: Speak to other parents and find out what classes they have found for their kids. Select 2 of them that you are willing to take your child to. Be prepared for a not very enthusiastic participation initially.
Zone into their interest: What does your child do on her own when she is bored? Paint, sing, whistle, play ball, use the hoola hoop? That would give you an indication of whether she likes a hobby that involves physical movement or creative energy.
Use friends as bait: A child would readily join a new activity if he can go with a friend. Find a familiar face in an activity of choice. ‘Avish is also going. Terence has fun there. You know Avish and Terence, don’t you?’
After class treat: This works too! After every art/piano/tennis class I will get you cupcake/donuts/chicken nuggets! …
Family hobby time: Each of you can pick an activity of interest and designate half an hour after dinner for HOBBY TIME. Your keen absorption in your own hobby may persuade your child to pick up one too.
Combined activity: A hobby can be a combined activity with a member of the family. Chess, puzzle, collage, craft work are activities that can be done with kids pitching in. They might become interested and take the activity further.
Parent’s expertise: Are you really good at something? Or maybe deeply interested in a single activity that could be a start of a hobby. Photography, Origami, Yoga etc.
What are active and passive hobbies?
When asked to list our hobbies many of us hover over the line endlessly and finally fill in music, movies and reading!
When you are involved in an activity that expects you to CREATE you are pursuing an ACTIVE HOBBY. Let me clarify that create here does not refer to creative art. When you play tennis you are being creative. When you play chess you are being creative. Any mental, physical involvement in the hobby makes it active.
When you are involved in an activity where you CONSUME you are in a PASSIVE HOBBY. So watching movies, TV, listening to music, even reading can be passive activities. If you are consuming entertainment without being actively involved in the process it is a passive hobby.
You must have observed that sometimes after you have watched a movie, your friend asks, ‘what was the name of the movie? Who acted in it?’ And you are blank! You don’t know! That’s because your activity was passive.
History of hobbies
Even when man was hunter-gatherer, they perhaps converged around the community fire during evening and sang songs, wove beads into dresses and made cowrie neck-chains. We could say these were hobbies?
By the 15th century hobbies were considered childish and trivial. The earliest recorded mention of the word hobby comes from hobby-horse of the 16th century. This was a wooden contraption with a face and a tail for kids to mimic a horse-ride. The 18th century brought industrialization and with it came leisure time. Hobbies were considered pastime activities, experienced mainly for pleasure and not for monetary gains. While stamp collecting, solving crosswords were considered hobbies, reading and listening to music were not.
Why does my child not take up a hobby?
I have tried all the above. Yet he fails to pursue a hobby. Why so? Perhaps you have mocked his initial faltering? Perhaps you stop him from his favorite activity because it fails to be yours too? He likes to make paper planes and you want him to focus on tennis. Perhaps he does not see you making any extra effort at learning new things, and he does not see the merit in hobbies. The initial days of learning are the hardest. Perhaps he or you give up too soon? All hobbies begin as erratic activities that capture our attention. It is then up to us to take it to a level of pursuit, obsession, mastery.
In this modern age, opportunities are so many and so varied, that a large number of persons have converted hobbies into professions. More so during the pandemic.
Ratna Rao has authored 5 books of which 3 are Amazon bestsellers. Her series of Little Games are books that help you find fun family time. The books have attractive black&white doodles that excite the imagination of the child. Open to any page, assemble, play the ten-minute game. It may help you find a hobby. Click Here to read more
