That’s how I think about details. Really, I don’t like them much. Now, I am a wonderful organizer, and I keep track of all of the details of life very well. However, give me an art project and I will have no problem finishing it with a few flaws worked into the mix. Those just tell me I’m human, right? No detail-oriented perfectionism here.
Of course, there are times when detail orientation is rather useful. I want my surgeon to be detail-oriented. I would prefer that those who build bridges get the engineering details just right. I’ve just accepted that I’ll never be these people. I’m a person who gets things done, maybe not quite perfectly, but generally well and generally quickly. It works for me.
One of the reasons that this parenting gig is so wonderful and challenging is that as parents, we see these same tendencies in our children. I have a child whose detail-orientation resembles my own. We went to a class the other night, and one of the teachers mentioned that they always provide an extra craft for the children who finish the first one early. My child finishes both of them at supersonic speed. Of course she does. She’s my kid.
She had no interest in reading or writing until this past fall. The reading is coming now, but getting neat writing is a struggle. Yes, she’s only five. Yes, it will come. However, I can see that she’s not quite where she could be. She is more interested in writing as a functional thing, as I am: get those words on paper. It doesn’t matter what they look like.
However, my child also needs practice. She needs to feel confident about her work before she does something. Unlike me, she doesn’t like to barge forward into the unknown without a road map. Funny, that.
How can I build confident skills in a child who doesn’t want to spend time on those skills? Right now, we’re doing it through games. We’re using writing in other activities where it’s incidental but necessary. We’re spending small bits of focused time on the writing aspect before moving on to the rest of the game. We’ll see if this works to create writing that is a little more legible!
Image courtesy of tinneketin at Stock Exchange.