What to Do When You Have a Child Prodigy

Since the advent of time, child prodigies have always been a big deal. Whether it was Mozart to Blaise Pascal; whether it was Galileo Galilei or Shirley Temple and whether it was Wayne Gretzky or Tiger Woods. Regardless of what the field is, it is amazing to think a child has such advanced abilities. As a parent, it can be more stressful because you aren't sure what the correct course of action to take is.

The first thing you have to do is to be able to recognize when you have a child prodigy on your hands. If you do, it should be clear that they have some remarkable aptitude in a certain field. It could be that they are great at painting, they are great at online roulette, or they are great at music. It just is clear that they are gifted.

When you discover this, you should do everything you can to feed your child. They should have a thirst for knowledge in this area. You should give them extra lessons or a private tutor to make sure they are taking in new information at the level they should. Why should they be learning how to count when they should be doing calculus and trigonometry?

You often see prodigies in entertainment. Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers are a current example, and before that Lindsay Lohan. You can say that being a child star can mean a messed-up adulthood but you can still be messed up without it. Why shy away from something just because of potential pitfalls? With good parenting, they can still be a child star and have a good rest of their life.

Yes, they are going to grow up very quickly but they are going to have an education for life and that is something you don't learn in school. In fact many people at school complain they are learning things for the sake of learning, which they will never use in later life. So why be fussed that they are missing out on learning these irrelevant things when they are learning things that will stay with them for the rest of their life?

If they are a prodigy in a field such as maths, chemistry or physics than leaving school won't be considered. They will be just leaving their current class for high school or even for college. They may then turn out to be one of the foremost academics. This was the case with Saul Kripke who was offered the chance to be a professor at Harvard while still in high school. He eventually went to Harvard where he won the much highly-coveted Schock Prize.

Often the level in which they excel can be limited by their age. A person can be a professional tennis player at the age of 14 but they wouldn't be able to be a professional formula one driver at the same age. Nor could they be a professional online roulette player. They will have to wait until they are legal age.

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Louis Garrick is a freelance writer who writes articles for popular online news sites. He has just completed a series of articles on online gaming culture and gaming sites like http://www.intercasino.co.uk.

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How Do You Decide Which Parent Stays at Home?

How do you decide which parent stays home with the kids? It's a tough question and the answer may be different for each family, especially if both the mother and the father are interested in being home with the kids.

Income

Who brings in the most income is a simple way to decide. If one parent is unemployed or earns significantly less than the other, it makes good financial sense to have that parent stay home.

But you also want to consider income potential, especially if the current difference is small. If one career has much greater potential in the long run, that's probably the one to stick with.

And don't forget stability. Just think of all the people who have been laid off in recent times. If one job is far less likely to suffer that way than the other, you need to consider that factor.

Personal Preference

Often one parent wants to stay home much more so than the other. For one of my sisters, it was a part of the deal that her husband would get to stay home with their kids.

You don't want a parent who is going to be miserable to stay home. They won't be happy and probably won't do as good a job at being a stay at home parent as one who really wants to be there. That's not to say they'll do a bad job or anything, but miserable shows even when you do your best to hide it. Kids notice.

Ability to Earn Money from Home

That I was training to be a medical transcriptionist at the time I got pregnant was a big factor in the decision that I would be home with the kids. We didn't have to sacrifice my entire income potential to have me there. Instead we sacrificed and continue to sacrifice quiet evenings together after the kids are in bed, as that's a big time for me to work. But we make it work.

Ability to Keep Up Skills

Most families don't have one parent stay home forever. You're both going to want a retirement income, after all. Staying at home can mean taking a break from a career.

That doesn't have to be all bad. The at home parent can take the time to take classes to update his or her skills. He or she can freelance to bring in some income and keep up those skills. It's important to make the most of what you have and what you're going to need to have for your future.

All these considerations assume that you have the financial ability to have one parent stay at home. If it's going to ruin your family's finances, think very carefully about what you're doing. You may need to take some extra time, pay down some bills and build some savings before you can have either parent stay at home.

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Stephanie Foster runs http://www.homewiththekids.com as a resource for stay at home parents.

Come meet other SAHMs and SAHDs at her forum for stay at home parents at http://www.homewiththekids.com/phpBB2

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