Loving My Kids Well and Pursuing ALL of Their Personhood

Today I fufilled a promise to learn to play Fornite.

Sheldon gave me my first lesson, and we all had a hearty laugh about my "skills".

I've committed to playing Fornite with my boys once a week in 2024.

We living education moms love to *say* that we value the personhood of our children...

And I believe that we mean it...

But I also know that our preservation and pursuit of their personhood is often limited by our own pride and self-absorption.

I know, I know.

We're the most sacrificial and selfless group of people on the planet..

Except when we're not.

We so often desire children whose personhood can be molded and shaped to affirm us, gratify us, and store our egos.

We want to preserve the personhood of our children when it involves reading and handicrafts and anything that serves as a metaphorical pat on our homeschooling backs.

We want their personhood not to infringe upon our sensibilities and our pride and our preferences, and we instead infringe upon their personhood with our fragmentation of who they are.

The truth is that all people contain multitudes and that everyone can and does love more than one thing.

The truth is that they can love gaming and reading.

The truth is that they can be creative with a controller in their hand and also with a paintbrush.

The truth is that they can engage in community in front of a screen and also in a room full of people.

The truth is that they *should* have a myriad of interests and that some of them (not just gaming) will be things that we don't necessarily care about..

I don't care about Fortnite in and of itself.

But I care about my kids.

I, as an adult, have a myriad of interests and they sit upon a spectrum of quality. I can sit in superiority over them while scrolling through useless reels and memes and watching my reality TV...

Or I can realize that I am capable of loving more than one thing and that they are as well.

I can tell them how stupid video games (or Warhammer or D&D or Halo or Mini Brand or...) are...

Or I can join in the fun, love my kids well, and pursure ALL of their personhood.

And you can too.