Show your child your creative side

A modern successful person can be seen (rightly or wrongly) to have the following:

• a happy life,
• a nice car,
• a beautiful house,
• happy children,
• a loving marriage,
• opportunities to travel,
• lots of technology.

Let's add in:

• money in the bank,
• creativity,
• a good social life,
• good health.

As a Power Parent, you're a role model. I want my son to see all sides of my character, so as he gets older I spend less time watching pointless TV programmes and more time doing things with him. I'm presuming that both you and I have everything in the first list; from the second list, money in the bank will come with time. Creativity is an interesting one. If you follow the normal pattern of: work, rest, shop your child will presume that money is key to life. I've started making things (woodworking) to expand the creative aspects of my character. When I decided that my son would love an arcade machine in his bedroom, I decided that spending £1000 would not be enough. I needed to make something that would give him a story. I can imagine Charlie, aged 30 and a parent himself, saying: "Dad made me an arcade machine when I was a kid. It was amazing. I'm going to make my son one too, family tradition!"

Creativity is a powerful tool to engage children. The hands-on learning approach works excellently in school, and showing a child how satisfying it is to make something from a stack of wood provides a real life lesson. As adults we're keen to spend a couple of hundred pounds on a TV unit, but we rarely ask if the quality and styling of the unit match up to the cost. You might not make furniture, but perhaps this post will spur you on to creating art for your child's bedroom, or picking up your old sewing skills and making personalized cushion covers for your play room.

Get some ideas from www.etsy.com and don't get discouraged when your first few attempts at creativity fail. Good luck, email me your successes as creative Power Parents!