Every parent has unfinished business: the piano lessons abandoned, the varsity tryouts missed, the dream job that never materialized. Then comes your teenager — fresh, capable, full of possibility — and suddenly you’re imagining their life as the sequel to yours.

Parents love to divide the world into “serious” and “silly.” School subjects? Serious. Sports teams with uniforms? Serious. Minecraft, Pokémon, Roblox, TikTok dances? Silly. But tweens don’t see that line. For them, joy is serious. Their passions — no matter how pixelated or obscure — are the seeds of curiosity, creativity, and confidence. The danger is that when we dismiss those seeds, we risk choking off growth before it begins.