NFT: What hobbies do you share with your kids?

They're always begging to help make meals and they watch the hell out of those cooking competition shows on Food Network. At their ages, there's only so much I feel comfortable letting them do, but we have a good time together.

when I go running on a nearby trail....her bike riding pace matches us pretty well with my running pace so that's a fun thing for us do to together.

My 5 year old son really got into baseball last year. We'll go to a nearby baseball fielding and play - he likes to take turns hitting and then pitching and having me hit. Also took him to a Yankee game last year and he had a blast.

My little guy really loves his legos, and I have been feeding that addiction like a dealer. I've earned my stripes as a parent by stepping on one, and jumping around like it was lava. Earned a few laughs from the offspring, so it was worth it. My father got me into model making as a kid, so that is one hobby I have been planning for him. I have a feeling dance class is in his future which will make his mother especially happy. The kid loves to dance. Constantly. It is awesome. Any interest he has, I want to emphasize it.

The 7-year-old isn't afraid to get her fingers dusty.

My 15 year son old bought his first car (2004 VW Beetle) few months ago. Waiting on the nice weather to start fixing it up...Needs a few thing here and there. Hopefully some good old fashioned father-son bonding too.

With my son it's baseball, baseball, and baseball :)
My daughter it's softball and cooking

There is nothing greater in life than sharing your favorite time with your kids!!

has been breaking through my own inexperience (or disinterest) to give my kids new experiences. I have never skied or snowboarded in my life (my wife has done only a few times herself) and was never really all that interested. However, because I'm inexperienced or uninterested doesn't mean my kids should follow my footsteps and miss out on the experience. Anyone have similar issues?

My hatred of soccer is well known here and my son loves to play. I really, really wish he would play another sport, but it makes him happy so I go to his games and cheer like hell for him. Same thing with Legos - he's a Lego nut too like many of your kids, and I never played with the things, but he wants me to help him with some of the more complicated sets he's gotten. I give him a hand by sorting the pieces by color and shape.

I'd say leaving a mess for Mrs. Deej to clean up is high on the list.

Oldest hated sports. She did achieve a Jr. black belt in Tae Kwon Do.

Youngest- taught her golf & softball but she doesn't play now. However she is a Giants fan.

You may want to look into Lego Robotics for your daughter.

Its an O.T.A. - school teams in competition with each other type thing that runs through school districts, emphasis on Team (you would appreciate) and which can lead into actual robotics.

It is Middle school level so it sounds like you are early, .. but is a great, great, great way for a very wide variety of nice smart kids to meet, greet and compete.

As for us, my son runs with his mother, I join set building for my daughters theatrical activities.

And force them to fish when I can.

At your stage we did the self run 'city hikes', Mott Street, water taxi, and countless, countless hours reading in Barnes and Nobles in the city Union Square, (which has a huge dedicated kids section, a stage for readings and so forth), pet store as well, is fun. Those in total can easily fill a weekend, keep the kids occupied at that age, and are mostly free.

Enjoy.

rewarding for me than coaching my daughters U10 hockey team.

It's rewarding for me because I didn't push her into it like I tried with my other kids. She came to me and said she wanted to play hockey (like me). and then she asked if I could help coach. Watching those kids grow, learn, fail, succeed, be teammates, and generally experience all the things you do in a team sport has been beyond what I ever thought it would be (for me).

The team plays a ton of games, they're in two leagues a girls elite league and a boys town league. They struggle in the elite league, but usually beat the boys.

One game they were playing a boys team early in the season, and the teams were walking out of the locker room and one of the boys says "yes, it's a girls team" and they were all high-fiving each other and kind of cheering.

After the girls beat them 5 - 0 (and the game wasn't as close as the score), none of them would make eye contact in the hand shake line.

I'm sure I was exactly the same way at that age, but it still felt good.

And entire family plays tennis.....But my kids have gotten much better.

I will definitely have to look into that.

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In comment 13411855 Ryan said:

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In comment 13411855 Ryan said:

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not funny

but I am going to wait a few more years. She will be 4 in November. I've seen some kids skiing and boarding at around 3-4-5 but figure it's better to wait and let her develop more strength and muscle first. Don't want to get her out there and have her discouraged if/when she fails to pick it up.

In-line skating with the little one, though I mostly walk/run alongside her. Cooking and gym workouts with all three. They are all musical - mostly guitar/ukulele and vocal - which they share with my wife.

we lit fam



(not so much a hobby, so much as I just enjoy embarrassing my kids in front of their friends and classmates by yelling stupid meme words that are decidedly not fleek)

Is working out (or as much as a five year old can). And I've realized that there is nothing more motivating than having her working out with me.

My wife was swimmer since she was small, so we're all about our daughter (and son) starting early unlike me (I didn't learn to really swim until I was in high school). She's also started doing random workouts with me whenever possible as well. She's a total beast with burpees (she completed a reverse ladder starting from 12 down to 1 rep for a total of 78 on Sunday) and sprints. I want to continue to foster her running abilities (my wife hates running, so it'll be my thing), so when it remains warm, I'm going to take her to the track and race her with her running a quarter mile while I run a half mile. Hopefully this will motivate her to run with me.

...I always thought that if I had a son, I'd introduce him to building scale military models and dioramas, something I was crazy for as a kid. Tough for me to pursue it now that I'm married and in a 1 BR apartment, but it's something I've always thought about returning to if I had a place to work (like a basement or a garage) where I could keep the mess away from my wife.

Geeky hobby, I know, but man did I love it. Not sure if the younger generation would find it appealing in the least though...

1. Bowling. One bowls in a youth league on his own during the school year and with me over the summer. The other bowls with me during the school year and in a youth league over the summer. They are both way better than me.

2. I take long bike rides with one. The other doesn't care for it much.

3. Video games. We love blowing things up

4. Tennis. We suck but love hitting the ball around together

5. We watch a movie together every other Friday night.

6. Finally...MUSIC! We love the same music and share new and old music with each other all the time.

older kids: what age do you think it makes sense to introduce them to golf?

I have a 2yr old and a newborn so obviously I'm not there yet, but I love the game and wish my father had introduced it to me when I was younger. He says he did but I was too young and neither of us enjoyed it.

Anybody have any success playing golf with their kids?

Giantophile said:

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older kids: what age do you think it makes sense to introduce them to golf?

70.

I tolerate it because at least it's a positive objective--building, being creative, etc. I wish I didn't know what a creeper is, however.

In comment 13412266 Big Blue Blogger said:

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Giantophile said: Quote: older kids: what age do you think it makes sense to introduce them to golf? 70.

What age do you let them try baseball or soccer? 5 or 6? Why not let them come to the range to bang balls?

In comment 13411696 Bluenatic said:

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The 7-year-old isn't afraid to get her fingers dusty.

I have milk crates full of vintage records sitting in my basement, if you're looking for anything to listen to.

I send a buddy a few lps a month for his son, he sends them back and I send him different ones.

RC my 28 y/o son still loves Legos. He'll gladly take a Christmas present or birthday present of Legos. One daughter played softball (which I coached little league and travel earlier) and now coaches in high school.
Youngest just loves shooting. Loves .45s and ARs. Go figure.

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I have milk crates full of vintage records sitting in my basement, if you're looking for anything to listen to.

Interesting. What kinds of records are we talking about here?

In comment 13412295 section125 said:

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RC my 28 y/o son still loves Legos. He'll gladly take a Christmas present or birthday present of Legos. One daughter played softball (which I coached little league and travel earlier) and now coaches in high school. Youngest just loves shooting. Loves .45s and ARs. Go figure.

My issue is that my wife is a bit of anti-gun liberal (although I'm more a pro-gun liberal...ha!), so I will have to wait until they're in their teen years for her to feel comfortable me teaching them to shoot.

In comment 13412300 RC02XX said:

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In comment 13412295 section125 said: Quote: RC my 28 y/o son still loves Legos. He'll gladly take a Christmas present or birthday present of Legos. One daughter played softball (which I coached little league and travel earlier) and now coaches in high school. Youngest just loves shooting. Loves .45s and ARs. Go figure. My issue is that my wife is a bit of anti-gun liberal (although I'm more a pro-gun liberal...ha!), so I will have to wait until they're in their teen years for her to feel comfortable me teaching them to shoot.

Of course. Need to be strong enough to handle the recoil safely. The youngest was 15 when she started to shoot.

I think your martial arts (jujitsu) classes would be fun for them and stuff they can practice with you at home. Legos are fun too (but holy cow expensive.)

In comment 13412296 Bluenatic said:

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Quote: I have milk crates full of vintage records sitting in my basement, if you're looking for anything to listen to. Interesting. What kinds of records are we talking about here?

My shut-in uncle passed, I grabbed crates until I got tired of carrying them down the flights of stairs. Left most of the classical and Barbara Streisand stuff, took stuff like this:

I've played guitar for 37 years, and my twins (almost 13) have been playing piano (my daughter) and guitar (my son) since they were 6.

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My shut-in uncle passed, I grabbed crates until I got tired of carrying them down the flights of stairs. Left most of the classical and Barbara Streisand stuff, took stuff like this

If you live in the NYC area, I'd be happy to take some of those crates off of your hands and out of your basement.

youngest, (a daughter), been playing for about 9 years and I've come to really enjoy the game. I might feel differently if my son had wanted to play soccer instead of football, but he loved football, so I got to enjoy

Golf is the big one for me with my son. Started him at about 7 and he's now a scratch golfer. We'll be able to play the game together for many years to come. We've played with my wife's father as well, so three generations were enjoying the hobby together. Pretty great stuff.

The comment about "plotting to kill my wife" was funny as hell. Lighten up people. :)

What? (shrugs)

on BBI.

The most frustrating thing is that I can't help him with soccer. If he played baseball, I could give him some instruction, but I last played soccer when I was younger than he is and I know nothing about the game other than the basic rules. Even though it's hardly my favorite sport, I'd love to be able to help him improve but I'm unable to do so, and clinics/camps are really expensive.

...alligator wrestling, wild boar roping, and shark wrangling.

In comment 13411855 Ryan said:

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Possibly the best post in the history of posting

because I'm now thinking how many of my hobbies are they partaking in, vs. me partaking in theirs. My kids love to help us cook and bake. My boys now are playing some video games with me. This is mostly the sports games variety. The Mario stuff and even the Star Wars games are me partaking in their games (I don't mind). My oldest is 12, though, and he is not allowed to try some of the games I've played without them (Call of Duty, Red Dead Redemption, Assassins Creed). They share my love of sports, especially baseball and football. This is my favorite time of year, coaching my son's team. Now, my younger son is starting his first baseball season. I'm thrilled.

I genuinely enjoy watching Giants games with them. My oldest has had a pretty solid understanding of the game for a few years now. It is nicer watching the game with him rather than most adults.

As for the other way around, I enjoy helping them with Lego creations. My younger son (age 7) is always creating new things or drawing new designs. I really love just watching him at work.