do you try to encourage typical kid things if your kid isn't naturally drawn to them?

[Anonymous]

I don't mean try to force a kid to be someone they're not. I mean like a boy who doesn't naturally show interest in professional sports - do you try to make sure they still have some exposure and awareness so they can fit in to the general tween boy culture to the extent they want to down the road?

(The example I gave is just an example and i still me fully letting the kids decide on their activities / interest, but also keeping typical cultural things in their life even if they're not naturally drawn to them purely for the sake in being able to engage in the preteen equivalent and water cooler talk and / or not stand out as the "weirdo" in a big ruthless middle school.

[Anonymous]

yes

[Anonymous]

Yes. My parents didn't and I later wish they had. But it is a delicate balance finding time to have your kid pursue their own things while still having general cultural exposure, isn't it?

[Anonymous]

I don't encourage my kids to do things just so that they won't be the odds ones out at school. We try to expose them to a lot of different things so that they can decide what they'd like to pursue. It probably has the added benefit of giving them some background knowledge if it comes up at school or with friends, but that's not really a factor for us.

If your kid is at a big school, chance are that they'll find others who share whatever their interests are. And they'll pick up on the cultural things pretty quickly whether you'd like them to or not!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't mean try to force a kid to be someone they're not. I mean like a boy who doesn't naturally show interest in professional sports - do you try to make sure they still have some exposure and awareness so they can fit in to the general tween boy culture to the extent they want to down the road?

(The example I gave is just an example and i still me fully letting the kids decide on their activities / interest, but also keeping typical cultural things in their life even if they're not naturally drawn to them purely for the sake in being able to engage in the preteen equivalent and water cooler talk and / or not stand out as the "weirdo" in a big ruthless middle school.

Why are they weirdos now?

[Anonymous]

I think maybe expose them to differebt things, but if they're not interested, they're not interested. Especially for trying to fit in with other kids. I think parents should really stress that kids be themselves and not to care so much about what other ppl think. I will, however, think kids should be encouraged to be k8ds as long as possible. Especially in today's world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't mean try to force a kid to be someone they're not. I mean like a boy who doesn't naturally show interest in professional sports - do you try to make sure they still have some exposure and awareness so they can fit in to the general tween boy culture to the extent they want to down the road?

(The example I gave is just an example and i still me fully letting the kids decide on their activities / interest, but also keeping typical cultural things in their life even if they're not naturally drawn to them purely for the sake in being able to engage in the preteen equivalent and water cooler talk and / or not stand out as the "weirdo" in a big ruthless middle school.

I know professional sports is just an example, but where does it end? Should kid know the names of every NFL team, be able to put together a good March Madness bracket, identify the last 5 winners of the World Series, name the top pro basketball players? What about movies? Do you make your kid watch the Marvel movies, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, etc?. And then do the same for music and video games?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't mean try to force a kid to be someone they're not. I mean like a boy who doesn't naturally show interest in professional sports - do you try to make sure they still have some exposure and awareness so they can fit in to the general tween boy culture to the extent they want to down the road?

(The example I gave is just an example and i still me fully letting the kids decide on their activities / interest, but also keeping typical cultural things in their life even if they're not naturally drawn to them purely for the sake in being able to engage in the preteen equivalent and water cooler talk and / or not stand out as the "weirdo" in a big ruthless middle school.

I know professional sports is just an example, but where does it end? Should kid know the names of every NFL team, be able to put together a good March Madness bracket, identify the last 5 winners of the World Series, name the top pro basketball players? What about movies? Do you make your kid watch the Marvel movies, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, etc?. And then do the same for music and video games?

I think a Percocet would help you

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think maybe expose them to differebt things, but if they're not interested, they're not interested. Especially for trying to fit in with other kids. I think parents should really stress that kids be themselves and not to care so much about what other ppl think. I will, however, think kids should be encouraged to be k8ds as long as possible. Especially in today's world.

+1

[Anonymous]

I kind of keep it in the back of my mind. And it has turned out that sports and video games are a big common ground that helps my DS socially. But he’s also pretty sensitive to pick up on what other people are interested in, so I think it would be have happened without me. Alternatively some things are really popular that he has zero interest in (eg youtube).

There are definitely people & kids legitimately uninterested in pop culture who do just fine socially. I think there’s no reason to try to make them conform. But actively preventing a kid from fitting in (eg banning video games) seems bad.

[Anonymous]

My 2nd grader just called a toy football ball a "baseball". But i also can't name you a single Taylor Swift song, so im okay with not knowing all the pop culture.

[Anonymous]

No.

I thought this was going to be about like barbie dolls and chicken nuggets.

Youre talking about pop culture. And no, I dont go out of my way to make sure my kids knows things, but if he hears someone talking about something and asks, we will look it up together. He is 9 and naturally very in to sports and music so knows more than I do about those things. But he knows next to nothing about video games and Im ok with that.

[Anonymous]

DS is in 5th grade, which is middle school here. We aren't huge sports watchers or followers at home, but he does play some sports. When I realized that his baseball coach asked him is favorite player and he couldn't answer I knew we needed a bootcamp. So over the summer we covered the basics, watched SportsCenter, got familiar with the local teams, etc. I truly think it helped him to be comfortable going into middle school and be able to be a part of the lunch conversations. One thing that threw me off was the amount of soccer talk, so I had him research that on his own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS is in 5th grade, which is middle school here. We aren't huge sports watchers or followers at home, but he does play some sports. When I realized that his baseball coach asked him is favorite player and he couldn't answer I knew we needed a bootcamp. So over the summer we covered the basics, watched SportsCenter, got familiar with the local teams, etc. I truly think it helped him to be comfortable going into middle school and be able to be a part of the lunch conversations. One thing that threw me off was the amount of soccer talk, so I had him research that on his own.

Excellent helicoptering mom!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS is in 5th grade, which is middle school here. We aren't huge sports watchers or followers at home, but he does play some sports. When I realized that his baseball coach asked him is favorite player and he couldn't answer I knew we needed a bootcamp. So over the summer we covered the basics, watched SportsCenter, got familiar with the local teams, etc. I truly think it helped him to be comfortable going into middle school and be able to be a part of the lunch conversations. One thing that threw me off was the amount of soccer talk, so I had him research that on his own.

Excellent helicoptering mom!

I think she’s being sarcastic, but DCUM is so crazy, I often don’t know.