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Ask her what she wants to do.


"I don't know"


Honestly, that is understandable. Part of being 11 is getting to do more and more things that you just couldn't do before. But part of being 11 is having an insulated view of the world and the things available in it. Not knowing is perfectly natural.

But still ask because she might know have an idea. Still ask, and encourage her to speak up and that you'll give it a try if it is affordable (or whatever qualifiers you have). Still ask, and provide some varied suggestions or categories of things to do. Still ask and try to get preferences of what the kid is currently interested in. At minimum, you can probably be left with some dislikes and a few things that might be interesting.


This, but I think it could be more nuanced. Notice her interest and explore further what she wants to do.

All she might want to do is watch some cartoons, notice the content and after some time propose to record your own little video with a similar content, or to model and 3D print one of the characters, or to use scratch to program one of the characters to do something.

Alternatively, give her options, not only verbal but take her places (the mall, local market, county fair) and observe what calls her attention and dig deeper into that!

Browsing books at a local library about whatever topic she might like could also be interesting!

Good luck and hope you have tons of fun!


take her places

Road trips were great bonding experiences for me as a parent.

Sure their headphones were on a lot when they weren’t sleeping.

But it was all happening someplace they hadn’t been.

And they saw me out of my comfort zone dealing with the unknown laughing at fart jokes on the XM comedy station.


If its like my daughter its watch tiktok 16 hours a day.


So install TikTok and sit together on your phones doom scrolling and see what happens.

Good faith means living with answers you don’t want to hear.

I mean if you ask and then say “I don’t want to do that” to her answer, what do you expect when you ask how about a hike instead?

You can choose which routes are available for a child to express their personhood, but you can’t prevent its expression.

Holding their expression of autonomy in contempt has consequences that you probably don’t want.

Learning from your child, on the other hand, will probably pay off for the rest of your lives.

TikTok is more interesting than most people.




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