Why You Should Encourage Your Child to Stand Out

“Oh, he’d wear a cape to school if I let him…”

Nurture creative thinking 

Or:

“My daughter would wear a tutu and a pair of cowgirl boots to class given the choice.”

I hear sentiments like these all the time—parents who think that their children’s wardrobe choices are funny, albeit creative, but they’d never in a million years let them actually wear them out in public. After all, what would all the other kids think, or, worse yet, what would all the other parents think?

This is a dilemma that many parents face today, but the more often I think about it, the more often I catch myself wondering, “Who cares what others think?”

So often, parents are so focused on their children following a similar path as them or hitting particular milestones that they fail to acknowledge the creative genius within them. And, given time, they eventually stifle those creative tendencies. But is this a good thing?

While creativity used to mean being able to think imaginatively and express yourself through artistic means, today it’s come to mean something much more valuable. Today, thinking creatively means using your muscles, planning and self-control to produce something that is both original and useful. It means being able to find fresh solutions to new and ever changing challenges, and to bravely set out on your own to create your own success, despite what others tell you you can and cannot do.

Creativity is a Commodity

According to one IBM survey of over 1,500 CEOs, creativity is now considered to be the most valuable trait of managers. Furthermore, creativity tests given to students in the 1950s were three times more likely to predict an individual’s level of achievement than their IQ tests were. According to these tests, individuals that scored highest on their creativity tests were more likely to invent a radical new piece of software, technology or cure for cancer, or run some famous non-profit organization than their non-creative counterparts.

“But that being said,” you’re wondering, “do I still want my child going to school in costume?”

Nurture Creativity

Every child is born with creative potential – it’s just up to the parent to recognize and nurture it.

At Stikii Shoes, we understand that letting your child show up to class in a superhero cape or a ballerina tutu can be distracting for the other kids, but we also understand how important it is to nurture creativity while the potential is still there. That’s why we’ve come up with a compromise.

Want to know what it is before the new school year begins? Check us out at….