How My Youngest Child Finally Found Her Thing

Alina Adams for Kveller

When my oldest son was 2 years old, he sat mesmerized in front of Vincent Van Gogh’s painting, “First Steps,” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for half an hour. By the time he was 11, he was taking classes alongside adults at the Art Students League (for everyone who asks me how to keep a talented boy motivated, I have only one answer: female nude models).

When his younger brother started school, he was so active (read: hard to manage), that I enrolled him in dance classes as an outlet. Now, he takes pre-professional level ballet, modern, and Spanish dance seven hours a week. That is, when he’s not teaching himself to computer program.

Conversely, for the first years of their little sister’s life, her only activity was being dragged along on their activities. She was a very good sport about it. She’s a good sport about everything. But, eventually, it began to bother me that I was not putting the same kind of effort into encouraging and nurturing her interests, as I had with her brothers.


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