'As Well As' Not 'Instead Of' - Hobby as Family Time...

My daughter (like most teenage (thirteen in her case) girls) has a selection of interests that mean little to me...

I don't like the same music as her (They quite literally sound the same to me), the same television programmes (there's only so many obnoxious teenage girls getting into the same adventure over and over again that I can stand) and though we have some crossover in film tastes (Lord of the Rings type 'Fantasy' and Thor-esque superheroes) I'd happily hack my eyes out with a rusty hacksaw before sitting through another 'Twilight' clone...

However once a week we venture down to our local hobby store Titan Games and for a day we (as a family) sit down and paint tiny models from worlds that don't actually exist without a DVD player, Laptop or sparkly twat in sight...

I've never made a conscious effort to prevent my daughter from doing the things she enjoys doing as part of parenting is accepting that your children will inevitably select exactly the opposite tastes to you in pretty much every area. I doubt my own parents had much interest in Nirvana or Rage Against the Machine and they (I'm reasonably sure ) certainly had issues with my taste in female rock bands...especially if they saw L7's performance on the Word...

The point I'm trying to make is that our hobby can easily be an activity for all the family without it becoming some kind of chore you inflict on them when they'd rather be doing something else. At some point in the future I'm sure she'll want to be out with her friends instead of out with her nerdy dad and mom...but until that point I'll enjoy our times together...

I suppose now would be a good time to show some of her work...

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.