What Are You Doing With Your Children’s Talents?
I have stated somewhere in this book that you have to raise children before you turn forty. I made that statement with intent. While it’s great to raise children before you turn forty, you must have a plan to empower them before you turn forty too and as they grow from childhood.
Every child is endued with potentials, what we often call gifts or talents. These potentials are meant to service humanity as they grow. These potentials may come through glaringly for all to see or some could just be there waiting to be triggered. It takes a watchful parent to look out for these potentials.
We’ve grown up with parents who expected us to turn out doctors, engineers, lawyers, bankers. But they failed to see that there were skills in us that directed us towards the path that God had envisioned for us.
Several parents have had issues with their children who offered to head towards a different professional path other than what their parents had defined. The result of these clashes of interest between parents and their children has led to suicide, cultism and other negative vices.
Perhaps you wish you had pursued a different career direction other than the one you are in now. I understand. But you don’t want to make the same mistake your parents made on your children. You should discover your children’s strength as they grow and seek to develop them in the area of their strength.
You can help your children create their platform. Smart parents are seizing on the creative talents of their children to open doors for themselves and their children too. Indeed, your children are new doors of opportunities revealing themselves for you and for them.
Those child prodigies you watch on television who wow you at seven and eight and who you wish were your children were actually discovered by their parents. Your children can wow you too if you put your eyes on them.
Even if you have no children now, you will have the someday. It’s great to have this knowledge at the back of your mind. You want to be able to start the process of your child’s talent development as you notice the talents so that by the time they are grown, they are already making the most of their lives. They could also become less dependent early in their lives which can be a really good deal if they do have a good head on their shoulders.
Successful parents are cashing on their children’s talents every day and they are managing those talents in their children to make the most of their lives. This is smart parenting.
At forty, you should have your expectations for your children no matter how little they may seem. Like yourself, your children are part of your life vision. They will certainly play a role in how your horizon expands. Your children are branches of your influence; when they become successful, it’s you becoming successful.
You’ve probably heard of football giants Neymar and Messi. Their fathers played and are playing interesting roles in their careers. The reason is obvious, they noted talent when they saw one and got to work.
Be on the look out! The youngest millionaires are seven and eight years olds and their parents got a clue of their rare capacity and decided to hatch on them early. If your child has a knack for art, don’t kill it. Don’t tell him “stop those drawings”. Help him develop that skill while also developing other areas that you think is also important.
Look out for writing talents. You’d probably be publishing a child writer who may turn out a child best seller early in life.
How about if your child can sing? It’s your work to teach him songs, write songs for him and take him to the studio to sing the songs. Get a producer and get a marketer too.
If you think your child can act, the smart thing to do is to connect with a movie producer in your city to help your child with the exposure to hone his skills.
How about if your child loves sports? Get to the nearest sports club or academy and get him registered to practice along with the team. It’s your job as a parent to take first steps first for your children. They will be grateful you did.
That you are developing skill does not mean you push aside the conventional education where possible. You should work to develop your children along the skill lines and conventional education. Your desire should be to raise all rounded children.
Developing your children’s talents means you are willing to invest time and resources to play the managerial role that is expected of you as they grow. You are the best manager for your children. Your duty today should be to learn the roles of a business and talent manager to add to your role as a conventional parent.
In my fifteen years directly engaged with children, I’ve had the privilege of coming across talented children who I often wish had parents who knew the value of those talents I see the children exhibit.
Really, there is less we can do in school especially in the conventional schools. While teachers strive hard to discover these talents through engaging in extracurricular activities, the bulk falls at the table of parents who can see what teachers see.
It’s sad that even when parents are rightly advised by teachers, those advices are often overlooked to the detriment of the child, parents and the society at large. A child whose talent isn’t used is a loss to life.
Many young people today and perhaps you reading this book could have ended on a different platform if that natural ability that you exhibited at childhood was managed.
When I was little, I loved to play football and I played so well. You understand what I mean by “so well”. But my dad would not want all of that. He had never seen a successful footballer around though he watched footballers on television. He couldn’t see how he was going to help my football talent.
When I got interested in art and got engaged with an artist to develop that talent, he thought I was wasting my time. All he cared about was my pursuing an academic career to become an engineer, something I had also shown some flare for. I developed the engineering side that he wanted, studied at the university and came through with a second class upper degree in mechanical engineering.
But talent was still pushing hard. I discovered I had a writing talent during my years at the university but I didn’t work on it till after I finished university. It’s been many years since I started using my pen. This book is a result of my effort at developing that talent.
I might never have been heard if I had pursued an engineering career. But you are reading me and several others across the world.
I watched with keen interest at a father and his little son who were practicing on a football pitch of a local community school in my vicinity. The peer were well kitted. His father was already making the correct investment for the development of his son’s talent. The earlier you start, the earlier you break through.
Most parents leave their children’s development to the school system. They claim they are paying so much in tuition and therefore should expect their children to turn out well. Our school system is however designed to offer generic education and not particularly geared towards the total development of a child. What I mean is, schools just touch the surface. They really can’t do enough to help you make the most of your child.
Look! Those child superstars you see aren’t the result of school systems. They are a result of a peculiar home based training and exposure which parents can only offer. But when parents don’t know what their role is for their children, they can’t play their roles effectively
Before you turn forty, you need to have a blue print for what and how you expect your children to turn even in your absence. While we hope for the best and pray for long life, it is important that you are raising your children to discover what they can do early in their lives. In your absence, they will certainly keep kicking and doing well going forward. The best reward system is talent.
Think about this. No company pays anyone enough for his talent. Those companies will only pay you for the value they put on your certificate. They’d already put a price tag on that certificate before they called for your application. They may decide to pay a thousand dollars monthly and the managers can choose to increase or decrease it depending on the economics of time.
But talent pays you beyond your salary. Here’s why we open out mouth wide when we hear how much our musical stars, sports stars and other talent driven careers earn in one deal. They earn what most presidents earn in a year in one deal.
You are probably thinking that you need to get your talents to work. If you appreciate the power of talent, you will also be able to empower your children to appreciate theirs.
Every child is a bag of potentials. This will however require you as a parent to be open to get the possibilities out. True, what will define the future of your children are your timely efforts at opening that bag of potentials. The longer you take, the more likely the potentials will remain there.
You may be single today and you are reading this and thinking this is not for you. Soon you will marry and have kids and you’d face this challenge. It’s only a matter of time. If you have this knowledge today, you’ve empowered yourself to make the most of the opportunities that life will bring along for you.
Everything you do in life must be deliberate. You should be able to deliberately define what you want in your children. Be a smart parent at forty. Make the most of the opportunities God has given you through your children. While they do have to learn and study at school, let them appreciate and develop the natural abilities that God has blessed them with.
You’d be glad a few years from today what your hardwork, believe and confidence would have driven them to.