How to Raise a Creative Child. Step One: Back Off

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I’m confused. THe author of this article makes it sound like raising a child to be an adult that is successful in their career is a bad thing. These people are overthinking parenting. Feed the kid. Dress the kid. Put them in time out if they hit their sister. Teach them to read. Provide a happy family life. You’re not a failure if you kid only becomes a happy, successful adult and doesn’t single-handedly revolutionize his particular industry. That’s not what the world is about.
 
Allegra said:
I’m confused. THe author of this article makes it sound like raising a child to be an adult that is successful in their career is a bad thing. These people are overthinking parenting. Feed the kid. Dress the kid. Put them in time out if they hit their sister. Teach them to read. Provide a happy family life. You’re not a failure if you kid only becomes a happy, successful adult and doesn’t single-handedly revolutionize his particular industry. That’s not what the world is about.
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Agreed, I quit reading the article half way through because honestly, as much as their is nothing wrong with creatvity, I don’t understand why th author makes it important to raise a child to be creative
 
Creativity can’t be taught, only encouraged.
You can’t stop an artistic child, where it be in visual arts, music, or drama…from doing their thing. They find ways to do it.
 
Creative parents have creative children, and so they have more insight as to how to raise them. I don’t think that was mentioned in the article, maybe I missed it though. Yea, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
 
One thing I will say is, there is one thing I do agree with the author about and that is the fact that creativity in a child is easily squelched. It’s been my experience that most children are born with innate creativity, but as they grown older they become inhibited. It’s not that they can’t think of creative solutions, but that they are too self-conscious to express them and they find it easier to be a follower than a leader. I don’t know if anyone has ever done a study on it, but I suspect that creativity and self-efficacy tend to go hand in hand.
 
The schools I went to as a child stressed obedience. Not creativity. Not thinking for yourself. Just obey and do as told.
 
Arizona_Fat_Gir said:
The schools I went to as a child stressed obedience. Not creativity. Not thinking for yourself. Just obey and do as told.
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Same here. Singapore is actually notorious for it. Parents tend to push their children into fields that are easier to get a job in/succeed (STEM over theatre for example)
 
Arizona_Fat_Gir said:
The schools I went to as a child stressed obedience. Not creativity. Not thinking for yourself. Just obey and do as told.
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Obedience and creativity are hardly mutually exclusive. A creative person can adapt and problem solve in various situations, with various sets of rules and standards. Jazz music is one of the most creative and expressive forms of music. The musician is able to improvise and experiment with all aspects of the piece, but if they don’t stay within the chord progression and tempo of the rest of the group, there will be disharmony and their performance won’t sound good.
 
Lea101 said:
Same here. Singapore is actually notorious for it. Parents tend to push their children into fields that are easier to get a job in/succeed (STEM over theatre for example)
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It’s hard to imagine a person being successful in a STEM field without creativity and innovation.
 
Allegra said:
It’s hard to imagine a person being successful in a STEM field without creativity and innovation.
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Well, depends on your idea of success. For most parents, it’s a paycheck with a certain amount of digits.
 
Lea101 said:
Well, depends on your idea of success. For most parents, it’s a paycheck with a certain amount of digits.
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That’s certainly one measure of success, but I was thinking of a broader definition along the lines of the ability to complete a field of study, find, and keep gainful employment. Jobs in STEM fields generally require considerable innovation and problem solving skills. What positions in STEM fields do you know of that do not?
 
I would agree that the things our children are the most creative at are those things where they were given the most unsupervised time to noodle around and do what they wanted to do. I consider unsupervised time one of the great advantages in life I was able to give them by being a SAHM.

We did avoid giving them amusements that were “pre-imagined.” We didn’t get them Lego sets with a picture on the box of what to do with the blocks. We gave them Legos and sometimes played with them ourselves and our kids picked up a few building techniques by watching us, but that was pretty rare. Our kids felt very free to combine building materials from different sets, so they got results that weren’t on any box. We didn’t buy a lot of art supplies, but they got all the scotch tape, duct tape, string and recycling (cans, bottles, cardboard, disposable tin baking pans, and so on) they wanted.

We didn’t hover around and insist they play Monopoly by the rules. It wasn’t that they didn’t play their games with any rules. It’s that they felt free to invent new games with different rules, sometimes. They combined games, they sometimes changed the goal of the game. They made their dinosaurs into action figures.

We did have rules, but rules that encouraged them to earn their flexibility: If you want to do your homework when you feel like it, fine, but you have to get it done without parental prompting. We did tell them how to do things, but we explained why that was the way we chose to do it and were clear about when we were obliged to do things a certain way and when we aren’t.
 
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