Hobbies
Riffing off Lance's post...
My brother and I both had hobbies, both individual and through 4-H, and we also spent a lot of time by ourselves or with only a few friends. Both of our parents worked, and both believed in raising independent children. I don't know if any of my hobbies pass the "obsession" part of the test, but between the two of us we managed the following: sewing, ceramics, knots, painting D&D figures, building forts, constructing houses and equipment for our toys, collecting comic books, raising rabbits, catching toads, photography, leatherwork, cooking...
Looking at that list, I think that the most notable aspect of our activities is that, with the exception of my brother's water polo years, my years in dance, and our shared years in ju-jitsu, none of these were things we did collectively in larger groups. Indeed, except for the water polo, none of this was done in teams.
We are not team players, my family. We're too independent, outspoken, and unlikely to suffer fools, gladly or otherwise.
Sometimes I think that this is a detriment, at least when it comes to work. On the other hand, all of us are pretty interesting people.
Anyway, back to hobbies. I think it's not simply having "alone" time, though that helps. It's thinking of oneself as an independent actor, able to act on one's own, rather than going along with the group, that encourages hobbies rather than fad-following - the kid who creates her own radio or writes his own music is going to be a quirkier, independent kid than the ones who prefer getting together with their friends to share the latest pop hits at parent-supervised get-togethers. I'd say encouragement of (or at least lack of concern over) such independence is likely also part of the mix. How can kids develop independent activities of their own (hobbies) if they're never really encouraged to be independent in the first place?
What are/were your hobbies, if you had them? If you have children of an age to have hobbies, do they have them, or not?

Recent Comments