How Do You Talk to Your Kids About the Future?

As we strive to prepare our children for the so-called future, have you ever stopped to consider how they perceive it? How do you see the future? If you ask little children, the answer will surely open your eyes.

Future-focused. Future forecasting. Future ready.

The present time no doubt inundates us with necessary ponderings about the future. Some even go so far as to say we are already in the future. The signs? AI or artificial intelligence is invading more and more of our daily space. It penetrates even creative tasks at a pace no one seems fully prepared for. Commercial space travel and the seemingly parallel universe of social media are just some of the signals that the future is a clear and present reality.

Without delving into the academic or business side of future thinking, I have a curious question. This one is pretty basic. What do you tell your kids about the future?

What were you told by your parents about the future?

I do this simple practice of thinking about something in terms of impressions and random thoughts that cross my mind when I dwell on that thing.

Let’s try it. Close your eyes for a moment and think of “future” and see what thoughts and images cross your mind, what feelings come up from inside of you. Better yet, I invite you to do this with small kids. Ask them, what are you looking at? You might hear them talk about concrete things. Most likely some fantastical and imaginary bits they’ve seen in movies.

How about you? Do you dwell on abstract ideas about the future or are you too preoccupied with your best laid out plans?

You might ask, where are you going with this? Well, I’m here to share my experience with future thinking. When I was little, the future was a vague and distant idea to me. I thought of it as a chunk of time that would never come because if it did, it would be called something else, right? Growing up into adulthood and particularly when I started having kids, I would regularly wonder about how to better imagine or make sense of the future.

It certainly was not useful to keep my old perceptions of the future as some amazing event always at a distance. It was unnerving. Nobody is certain about the future’s exact arrival.

If only the future had a specific date.

I think this mindset led me to assign to the future every big thing, every long-term plan that seemed too much to face in the present. It became a dumping site for all things I procrastinated on.

But what if the future comes? I wondered back then. You might say it is not a question of “if” but “when.” Others may even say it is silly to ask when the future might come because the answer is awfully obvious. But is it?

To this day, this question sparks my curiosity and continues to enchant me.

A few years ago, I was invited to be a storyteller at my daughter’s 3rd grade class. The kids shared interesting things that they would like to do at some future time. I looked at them and wondered if they had more clues than I did back then about seeing the future squarely. I got inspired not by answers I heard but by the questions that came up. One day, to my own surprise, I got into writing a children’s book to ask, What if the Future Comes?

The question is not as straightforward as it seems. There are layers of thought to consider.

You see there is no clear boundary line that tells you where the present ends and the future begins. Most of us are conditioned to rationing time in day-to-day compartments. In this view, tomorrow would be our closest future. Some might say, why care so much about it? The great Albert Einstein himself said, “I never think of the future, it comes soon enough.” But I’d like to think it is precisely for this reason that we must give the future a thought, so we are ready when we see it face to face, day by day.

So let’s start a conversation about the future. Let me know what and how you and your kids think about what’s on the horizon or what’s lurking beyond tomorrow’s sunrise. I promise you; it will open up threads of meaning that enrich how we live our lives every day; how we use our time today to bring us steps closer into our distant goals. I will listen and learn. See you in the next bit.

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P.S. I am so glad you’re reading my story.

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