Did your parents help you in developing your talents?

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Did/do your parents support your aspirations and try to help you in developing gifts you're born with? I'm asking about such things like private lessons (of languages, music or whatever you had gift for), buying books, travelling to show you the world, talking to you about serious matters.

My mom unfortunately doesn't belong to the caste of highbrows (and she couldn't afford to such things too much). For example, I had a philosophy course when I went to high school and in the beginning of our first year of school our philosophy teacher told us to buy the books about the history of philosophy (hmm, they were very expensive and we didn't use it even one time). Shortly after this my mother and I met in a bus a mother of a girl that was in one class with me when we were in primary school. Mom talking to her about my new school brought up a subject of those books and literally mocked my joy of having got them - according to her words I was so glad "as if I was given only-God-knows-what not the books".

And what about you?

My mom buys me books. I am a huge reader. I love to learn. So my parents often will take me to museums. So yeah, I think they do value my gifts.

i wouldn't say directly, but indirectly my parents inspired me a lot when I was a child.

I wasn't "born" with a gift, I don't think anyone is literally born with a gift, they just start doing something earlier than most people and get really good at it because of their early interest and dedication to whatever the "gift" is. They did nothing about my delays; which I am thankful for, modern psychiatry is torture. I feel like they knew there was something different about me (afterall I am the only, out of 3 others, in my family that they invested a scholarship into).

My mind is geared towards imaginative/creative activities; thats my general skill, not very specific, but I can do anything with it. Writing, thinking, drawing etc.. I can do it all. Not very good at drawing, only because I have only drawn one thing in the past 5 years and never stuck with it. I am choosing music and creative thinking.

I became really, really good at music after messing around with it for a few years. I did that on my own. (I tried to get my parents to buy me a guitar when I was in grade 8, they refused, it wasn't until 3 years later that I decided to save up my money to buy my own that they would help me pay for a portion of it).

My parents tried to develop me by placing me into hockey, as fun as that was for me (skating around is fun) I quit after everyone hit puberty as a sea of hormonal teen guys was too overwhelming for me. Although I do appreciate what it is has done for my body.

No, I was completely on my own. In some aspects, such as my music, they actively stood in the way of my moving forward. Otherwise, they offered no encouragement in any area.

When I was little my dad taught me a lot about DOS and let me buy and install a new hard drive once I had filled most of their HD up.

Other than that my parents just gave me a lot of crap about spending a lot of time on computers. I didn't really start "working" on them until high school. Naturally they had no problem with me fixing things they had broken, unable to see that the time I was "wasting" being "boring" was what kept our family PC from imploding.

My Dad encouraged me through a lot of the interests and obsessions that I had when I was younger, particularly when it came to learning to play Piano, reading and understanding maps and tinkering with car engines.

Many of those skills still find use in my everyday life (although an intricate knowledge of the Morris 1000 engine isn't of much benefit nowadays - does anyone still drive an old Mini or an Austin Metro that needs looking at? ) so I am grateful for having been taught them.

Some people have potential in a field while the others don't. If somebody for example doesn't have gift for drawing or sport or whatever even having started exercises very early his achievements in this field won't be big. One saying in my country says: I w Paryzu nie zrobia z owsa ryzu what is translated as: Even in Paris they won't make a rice out of oats - some talents are simply congenital.

I also love books but even when I buy a book (I do it rarely - well, maybe not so rarely; I've just counted how much books I bought this year, I bought 5 books) I must hide it - mother would say that there are libraries and electronic versions of books I can find in the Internet. But I can't blame her, books are not cheap (and in my small town there are not any second hand bookstores) and I can always borrow a novel from a library or download an e-book.

nope

My mom supported my love of books and of animals.

As a kid, my mom was more than happy to let me read books. For this, I am very much grateful, as they were integral to my enjoyment of childhood. I'm also quite happy that they bought my computer. My mom taught me to read when I was 4, which soon became one of my favorite things to do. My mom wasn't a big reader herself, but she was very proud of and encouraging to a son who did. My dad was different, he would tell me to stop reading so damn much; even when I didn't have to do anything, he thought it'd be better if I stopped for some reason which I have never understood.

My siblings have been equally encouraging of my reading, although they were quite annoyed when I was still forcing them to listen to me read up until I was 10

Sort of. They didn't discourage me, but they didn't really expose me to all the possibilities that existed. My family was strictly blue collar. I played all the major sports because that is what we did. I had a good bit of fun with it so no complaints.

I also had interests in things like astronomy and some of the arts that were cost prohibitive at the time and would have been seen as different and weird if that makes sense. I regret my going with crowd and not exposing myself to these things while growing up.

Yeah, in some ways, because I loved to be read to, and then to read, and they definitely encouraged that. And they believed in learning. On the other hand, I ended-up playing the violin for years mainly because my mom wished she'd had the chance to do it, and only dropped it at the end of my junior year of high school so I could concentrate more time & effort into journalism, which I was very into then. And, though they were both high school grads, neither had a lot of knowledge about math or science and weren't able to help when I got bogged-down with math phobia & etc., and they didn't get me extra help in areas that would have made college a lot easier for me. Of course, I guess tutoring wasn't as common then, and my parents also would have looked at it in financial terms; I was a midlife baby and they knew they needed to plan for retirement. I was just lucky there was a very good state university in my hometown. On the whole, I think they did okay by me, considering that I came from small family farming on both sides of the family.

No. So long as I was quiet and didn't disturb the adults they just left me alone. My parents believed that children should be seen and not heard.

Ed Almos

No.

I don't believe I have any talents anyway. Though I might do, if anyone actually cared to help me look.