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Have you every noticed how many people in the video stores – for example seem to have trouble selecting a movie without a cell phone glued to the side of their head and constant feedback from the lucky person on the other end of the phone?  Independence and self-reliance are two characteristics that very much seem to have gone the way of the dodo.

But they’re very valuable qualities to have and I’ve always believed that one way to help cultivate those characteristics in yourself and later in your kids is through the pursuit of individual hobbies.  Anything from model building to model trains to sewing, gardening or growing bonsai trees.  Every one of these past times – and a few hundred others ,  will help people learn to spend more time -or should I say, “more happy time” in their own company. It’s entirely possible for a family to have  fun together and still have their own interests.

In spite of being such a busy place this really can be a very lonely world and if your kids can grow up knowing that they don’t need to be surrounded by other people to keep them entertained and from whose company they can extract their own sense of self worth, then encouraging their interest in puzzles, crosswords or building back yard birdfeeders will be an excellent investment of every one’s time.