April 23rd, 2025

First Person View

I decided to get into FPV quadcopters (First Person View). They are often called drones. When I first decided to buy one I was hoping I could get my daughters interested in the hobby too. In order to assemble one you have to do some soldering. I thought they would be interested because in the end they would have a cool toy to fly around. I was wrong.

I can understand that they wouldn’t want to solder. They don’t want to solder because they would rather spend their time looking at their electronics. I failed my responsibility as a father. I should have forced them to build it with me. They should be spending less time on their phones. They would have learned a skill.

It is hard to force them to do things. They put up a fight. Once I get them started, they generally like whatever I have decided to work on. It also hurts our relationship. I get excited about something and they aren’t interested. Then I feel as though they don’t want to do things with me. I show a lot of interest in their hobbies, I facilitate them. I go out of my way to say yes when they ask me for something.

I’m starting to wonder if this will just be the way it is from now on. I understand my role as a supporting parent. I am starting to realize that they may never see me as a person who they should also show some interest in as well. How do I teach them that caring about what I like is important too? It seems natural that they will support their friends and boyfriends, or is that also not a given?

Maybe I should tell them exactly this point. I have a reason I am trying to show you something. I tried to pick something you will like. You may not know how much you will or won’t like it until we have worked at it for a bit. Worst case scenario, you won’t like it very much but you will have learned. This seems like an important lesson. I may have to even explain it like how I am writing this now. I don’t want to lay out a guilt trip but it’s also straight forward way to teach an important lesson. I don’t know, I guess I just want them to stop watching all those 30 second clips on their phones.