I won’t be the dad that pushes his son into profession that his dad always wanted to have. But I will.
I bought my children a magnet set to play with together. I deliberately bought the family size with 160 pieces of magnetic rods and steel balls.
Here’s Where My Mouth Dropped
I showed them both the both and said with a father-of-young-children infliction “This is both of yours. It’s got 120 plus 40 pieces in it!” Then I pointed to the spot on the box.
My daughter(3) ignored me. My son(6) looked where I pointed on the box and said “12o + 40 is 160.” I wrote that with a period to show that there was no excitement or surprise in his voice. He added these two numbers in his head in seconds and did it like “of course, Dad.”
Dude, What?
“Y-YEEAAH, Buddy! That’s exactly right! *high five*” I continued, “Was that easy for you?” In hindsight, I should’ve held out a second longer to give him an openminded question. He close-mouth smiled with his Pac-Man face and nodded like I had just put a video camera on him.
Engineer’s Engineer
I’m raising an Engineer. I will try really, really hard to allow him to unfold into who he wants to be. But everything in my being and wallet will push him toward a job with Engineer in the title.
Further, I’m taking to a higher level my silent promise of throwing tough challenges at the kids. I have this theory that children can literally learn anything, ANYTHING. Fortunately or unfortunately, my offspring have volunteered for the Case Study.