PAY _CLOSE_ ATTENTION TO THEIR TALENTS AND GIFTS
‘ Femi Adekunle on Parenting
This title sounds so simplistic, but it’s quite deeper than it sounds. I’ll use some illustrations to explain.
It’s so easy for parents to jump into conclusions when they see their children manifest some ‘gifts’, or be misled into jumping into such conclusions. I have heard people say that a child that loves to argue a lot will make a good attorney. Or that a child that destroys his toys ever so often is displaying an engineering skill. How wrong an extremity!
My grandma (how she loved me so much!) told my story: when I was a baby, I began singing at 7 months. While others, including my mum, thought it was baby blabbing, she was able to decode the lyrics! By the time I was 2, I sang like a canary. They all concluded I was going to be a great singer. As I grew older, that ‘gift’ faded until I sang no more. Today, singing is the least of my interests, however, I know the gift which I have that is traceable to that expression as a baby. Sadly, it remains an undeveloped part of me which I am working on even at my age.
My children and I were once having a gist about their classmates, and they told me about a particular girl who used to “blow big big lies” (their words). According to them, her father had the biggest car in town, the biggest swimming pool you can ever think of and the biggest mansion. Anytime school resumed from vacation, she always told them made-up stories of her exotic vacation experience in different parts of the globe, making them all green with envy. They looked forward to her stories and sat round her as she piloted them on a cruise of fables. Until one day when they burst her bubble with the legendary story of their mansion zoo being stocked with new, exotic animals with two, three heads.
Since then, they were all in the habit of booing her and making her so miserable. Even the teachers reprimanded her for ‘lying’! Unfortunately, we had this gist long after they had left that particular school, otherwise I would have intervened somehow. Why? While they all, including her teachers possibly, saw in her a disgusting pathological liar, I saw a child with a fertile literary imagination. I saw someone who is gifted with a prolific fictional prowess. Someone who, if encouraged, can be mentored into becoming a creative writer and author. I hope the voice of a Nobel hopeful has not been stiffed.
The point is this: those early expressions in your child may be pointers to something else more profound. A child who draws may not necessarily be a painter or an artist in the long run. It may just mean that he is creative, which creativity will find expression in any field he finds himself. As parents, discovering real talents and gifts in children transcends a fleeting attention, it needs the third eye. This is why in advising parents to pay attention, I emphasised the adjective ‘close’.
As parents, discovering real talents and gifts in children transcends a fleeting attention, it needs the third eye.
‘ Femi Adekunle , a Parenting and Family Coach, writes from Abuja, Nigeria.
Email: femi383@gmail.com
WhatsApp: 08055103512
4th April, 2026
