Friday, 17 January 2014

Creativity and children

Scene 1: A 6 year old dabbles in hand painting, making a mess of her study-table, spilling paints everywhere, staining her clothes. The mother enters her room and seeing the mess, shouts her to stop immediately and clean herself and the room as well.

Scene 2: Same situation. Just a little bit of difference. Here, the mother encourages her to try new patterns and the mother's hands are also stained with paints. After it's over, the mother along with the child clean themselves and the room.

Now, according to you, which child is more creative? I would say both of them! But that creativity will get nipped in the bud in the first scenario, whereas, the other child will be free to experience her creativity all through her life.

As mothers, we don't like so many things of our children!(their eating habits, their friends, how they spend time). But, instead of admonishing them, we need to take a step back, observe them carefully and ask ourselves 'Are they enjoying this activity?' If you get a positive answer, encourage them, maybe get involved for a few minutes. I'm sure they will cherish being together even if it's just fifteen minutes.

After all who is going to remember all that mess a few years down the line if a Picasso is getting trained at home?

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