Out of the box

In business and in your career thinking out of the box is an asset. Why is it then that we try and get our children to think inside the box?

I am sitting here reading the Practica manual to get assist your child's development, and ensure that after you have paid for this programme, that you are able to put it into practice. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying Practica wants to get your child in the box, but I was just thinking how amazing children at the age of two are.

I mean flowers are meant to be smelled, regardless of whether they are beaded, printed or real, and if you think about it, all of these have a smell, some would obviously be better and sweeter than others, but they smell none the less.

To give rise to a bout of creativity, it is as creative to stack toilet rolls; if that is what you have been dealt with, as it would be to stack anything else. I mean we spend a lifetime to learn that if life hands you lemons make lemonade, and yet our children are born with this.

We also know that it the box is always the better toy, regardless of what you bought, why because the box has endless possibilities, it is a house or a tunnel, a den or a puppet box, it is a container or a boat, it is a car or a train. The toy inside the box is just that - a toy, and the options for the toy is limiting, there is also the obvious downside to the parents being annoyed when you take it apart to "create" a new toy. Why can't we as parents appreciate our children's natural ability to think outside the box, I am not talking about tolerating a definite challenge of authority, I am talking about letting them be. I for one is going to find a nice big box for Mia for Christmas, to see what she can come up with.

When do we all become in the box people, I was at a children's party this weekend, and one of my friends were saying she hates baking because she hates following a recipe. She said that she was one of those kids who could not colour inside the lines. I know what she is saying, as I also had a run-in with my grade school teacher about colouring in clouds. She was trying to get me to colour-in properly, and I was being creative. Is it our school system that stifles our natural ability to see opportunity?

Is it our parents that teach us to fit in and not to rock the boat, and this is passed on to the next generation? Do we fit in to not draw attention, and to be accepted by our piers? Why can't we all just celebrate our differences? My challenge for you this week is to not try and actively teach you child something, but to allow then just to be, let them lead the way, see where it takes you. Who knows it might be some weird and wonderful place, where you have never been...