Hey, thanks, this advice may help me sort out some overwhelmed bits of my own parenting life.
This isn't one of my biggest worries, but as you are speaking of multipotentiality...
Our oldest child(older teen)has just a few interests, which has frustrated me in the past. However, these are deep interests and therefore he has a pretty clear direction to travel.
Our middle child is interested in everything and well-rounded talent-wise. The third son is pretty much this way also, but just turned ten and it's not yet an issue.
The problem? Well, the problem is my own fear. I know that things will work out great for these guys, but I can't help projecting a bit of my own experience upon them. When I was at school I had a lot of interests. I wasn't PG, but I had a fear of settling into a career that I might hate and so I never focused on any particular interest - at least not for long. I felt envy for my friend who entered college knowing exactly what she wanted to be and left with a teaching degree. Mine was an inter-disciplinary degree that involved art and anthropology. I suppose that speaks for itself.
How important is a strong sense of direction? Is it perfectly fine to let chance bump one along through life? To let the lottery of teachers and others we meet profoundly influence us this way or that? That's pretty much what I've done- and I WILL say that I've led an interesting life so far! But is that what I want for my kids- not so sure. I just watched "An Inconvenient Truth" recently: I wonder if Al Gore would have become such a figure in our society if he hadn't had that one particular science teacher.
I realize this is a little on the philosophical side, and obviously chance is a part of life... but I wonder.. where to draw the line. How much to influence the children's decisions and how much to let them have their own. The problem, with PG kids, is that they are making some of these choices while they are still kids. A child can be both smart and wise, and yet still be a child.
One thing I've always done is to tell our boys that they can change their minds. Many people change their careers or have multiple careers. I feel that perhaps I wouldn't have had such a fear of commitment if I'd realized as a young person that this wasn't necessarily a life sentence.
