How to Get Your Child to See Life as a World of Wondrous Possibilities

Not all children are upbeat and embracing of everything the world has to offer. If the sheer awesomeness of life is not something your kid welcomes, it may be time to take affirmative action to encourage their engagement and involvement to a greater degree. Here are some ideas you can try as a parent that can open your child’s eyes to the possibilities…

What Makes They Eyes Light Up?

While you as a parent might not always love the things that your child chooses to care about (or instinctively shows interest in), if you’ve been turning your nose up at these things, it’s time to stop.

Why do we say this?

Because for an unmotivated or unhappy child, they’re only likely to show interest in things they like or are enthusiastic about. And for them, that’s not something you can force.

It’s better to embrace what they like (if it’s a safe and healthy choice) and go on a journey of discovery with them, rather than reject it because it doesn’t conform to your own ideas. In time, their interests will broaden out as they become open to other ideas and feel comfortable doing so.

Travel Tours for Kids

Another cool idea is for progressive schools to send their pupils on a different kind of educational travel adventure. You can talk to the teachers at your child’s school about this idea and see if they’ll get onboard.

Instead of the typical one-day school trip, educational student tours from companies like TravelBound take young kids to distant shores where they can get immersed in a new cultural experience, a language tour, or get an in-depth focus on school subjects like STEM.

The result is unlike any other kind of school trip they could go on. They’re going to return enthusiastic about things that they never showed interest in previously. For a parent, this is greatly encouraging.

Give Them More Control, with Careful Guidance

As a parent, you have a choice. You can constantly tell your child to brush their teeth, do their homework and nag them to death. Or, you can lay out some ideas and let them see how they wish to proceed.

If they make less favourable choices, you can ask them why they did that and not the choice that you would have preferred they made. By taking this approach, it’s possible to better understand their thinking while still providing corrective guidance through recommendations and to course correct along the way.

Children are likely to get more involved with life when they feel more in control of their own lives. Empower them by giving them a taste of this freedom but with parental training wheels still attached.

Share Your Hobbies

If you have a kid-friendly hobby, share it with your children. See if they enjoy it too, or they may simply wish to use the opportunity to spend more time with you. Both reasons work equally well to keep them both occupied and willing to try new things. While they may never love the things that you do, it may suggest to them that they can find things they’ll personally enjoy too. Explain how you got started with your hobby; they may also recognise that there is not always an obvious or a direct route to finding it.

It’s necessary to try a few different ways to get your child to do more with their young life. As a parent, don’t get discouraged. For reluctant kids, it’s a process and takes its own time.