GwynapNud the Irrelevant wrote:
Lady DSD wrote:
Quote:
As much as I love my parents, there is one thing I was very frustrated about growing up. There were several activities I had a big interest in growing up, and they never did anything to help me cultivate those interests (hell they didn't even really help me make friends).
It's not a parents job to help you make friends. That's all on your own bucko. I dont go around trying to make friends for my sons. I may have friends who have kids my kids age and if they get along, fantastic, but thats just a bonus in my eyes. If my kids want friends they can make them. I will help in trading play dates for the kids to get together at each others houses, but thats my extent.
As for extra curricular activities, those are nifty and all but also can be expensive, time consuming, and a pain in the *** for the entire family. And quite frankly most kids dont want to keep up with the activities and then the parents are in the situation of either forcing their whiny kids to continue or to lose a lot of cash and teach their kids you dont have to finish what you start. I've had Xavier constantly come up to me and say I want to try this, only to have a new hobby in mind a week later with no caring for the one he was drooling over earlier. You might have been one of those few who really wanted to do one special activity as a kid that your parents didnt help you with, but I have to ask, if you really wanted to do it then but were unable to, whats stopping you from trying now as an adult?
Edited, Nov 22nd 2009 3:39pm by DSD
Dsd, I think you may have missed one aspect of what she was saying. She was 10 miles from town as a child. If you are relying on your parents for transport and they do not help you travel that does lock you out of activities. And while in school, that can socially exclude you. Its easier to make friends when you have the ability to show up ... Just sayin' ..
Yup. I didn't expect my parents to make friends for me, but it would have been nice if they would have aided me in making friends by giving me reliable transportation. Also, I neglected to mention that we moved from San Diego to the Southern coast of Oregon when I was 6. I started out elementary school with absolutely no friends because of that (all in all not really a big deal, but if we had stayed in S.D. I had quite a few friends from pre school and daycare that were going to carry over to elementary school). From the ages of 6 until about 9, all of my friends that I did have, lived within a five minute drive of my house. There were three girls my age that lived nearby enough that I was able to make friends with them. As I got older, I started making friends in my class that lived farther away and my parents did allow me to play and spend the night with these girls, but not as frequently as the friends who still lived close by.
I know it sounds like I'm blaming my parents for me having a bad social life when I was a kid, but really I was just trying to point out what I plan on doing differently as a parent. As far as my interests now are concerned, I would still really love to get private voice lessons, but I can't really afford them right now. Once I graduate from college and have a real job I'll probably look into it. Gymnastics and dance, well it's way too late for me on that end lol. Theater I've been involved in off and on since high school. You're right in that some of those activities are expensive. Some of them though, didn't cost a dime other than gas for transportation (like community theater and different community sports camps).
