Helping kids find their interests

[LongToedDog]

Hi, one of my children is really passionate about a certain thing (cars) while the other one isn’t passionate about anything. I feel sad for him that I’ve not been able to find something he absolutely loves. We have tried lots of sports, bike, scooter, an instrument, art, painting, all the usual kids things… the only thing he loves is his iPad. When screen time is over he cries as he says he feels sad 😔 I’d love to help him find an interest that he enjoys.

has anyone had this experience and what did you do?

with my other child, when there are no screens he is fine, as he will simply play with cars for HOURS.

I’m not very good at this, but first thought is what are their ages? Do you live in city, or more rural?

I'm assuming he is still fairly young, so there is still time. Just keep giving opportunities to try different things. What does he do on the ipad? Play games, do digital art, watch anime? This could lead to interests eg my youngest started watching anime and has become obsessed with Japan. If he got into digital art he could get into painting (sorry just seen you already tried painting). Or he might enjoy reading and get into writing fan fiction.

Also what about Warhammer (expensive though) or Dungeons and Dragons?

He is 8. He watches videos of other people playing video games on you tube.
has limited interest in playing them himself, and will always pick to spend his screen time on watching YouTube rather than playing on his console.

have not tried dungeons and dragons or war hammer so will try these.

we have also tried more traditionally “girlie” things like dancing and crafting but with no success. I’ve always given a mix of toys (eg dolls as well as Lego) but he has no interest in any toys and never really has. He will play with them if he has to and with a lot of cajoling but doesn’t enjoy them.

we live in the suburbs of a medium sized city.

literally any time we are in the house he just wants screens (doesn’t always get them). When we are out he is fine and goes to 3 sports clubs a week and his music class, but he doesn’t have any interest in practicing these skills at home so won’t think about them again till his class the next week.