There was an X class solar flare a couple of days ago. That’s not especially noteworthy, but if you live in Michigan, it means that the chances of seeing the Northern Lights has increased exponentially. I told my son that we would be getting in the car to make sure that we were in a dark place and away from clouds and he wanted to know why I wanted to see the Northern Lights with him since I had already seen them before he was born. And the question stopped me for a second. He’s 6, he doesn’t know that the aurora borealis is on most people’s bucket list for years and years and years. That people will travel for thousands of miles or book trips especially to places where they are likely to see them and there is still no guarantee that you will.
That’s our job, to expose him to anything that could set his heart alight….
I realize that he doesn’t care about any of that. He asks me why I want him to experience things. He wants to know why I’m willing to experience things again just to make sure that he gets to experience them too. This question makes me realize something about my style of parenting that I never even realized. I believe that my fundamental goal as a parent is to give my child experience or exposure. I want him to grow up, leave home and know how to negotiate a changing world. And while I rely on his school to teach him a ton of stuff, actually getting on a subway and learning how to read a subway map is up to me.
Now, I know that seeing fanciful lights in the sky seems indulgent while learning to read a subway map seems much more useful, but what if seeing the lights makes him realize that he wants to be a space weather expert? He thinks he’s going to be a goalie for Chelsea Football Club right now, but that’s because he has been exposed to that by his father. That’s our job, to expose him to anything that could set his heart alight and make it easier for him to find the thing that he is passionate about and brings him joy. It might be soccer, it might be solar flares and atmospheric conditions, it might be something I haven’t even thought about yet.
Make sure and do that for yourself too. Don’t stop finding new things to try, new places to go, new things that might just set you on fire for a new hobby, love interest, job. Anything could be the thing that makes you realize that there is more out there that you want to get to than what you already have.