if the child is interested...
If the child himself wants, why not teach it.
The main thing is that the child himself has a desire for this.
There was a thread in the
Community Hangout section in the
General Discussion forum asking about what was the best place for children to spend their childhood. I answered "
Where they are loved, supported, and encouraged. ❤️" That is the kind of home that I was blessed to have grown up in.
My parents always, well with a few exceptions, supported my big sister and I in the things that we were interested in. That is how they came to teach me how to play poker when I was eleven or twelve years old.
Westerns were big on tv when I was growing up, and a familiar part of any saloon (bar) scene was people sitting at a table playing poker. My mother had taught me Cribbage and Gin Rummy when I was much younger, and that began my love with cards. So when I saw my cowboy heroes playing poker I got interested in it, and asked mom and dad if they could teach me how to play.
One Saturday evening at eight, after they were done watching
The Lawrence Welk Show, we set up the card table and played poker until ten when
Gunsmoke came on. For the next two or three years that became a weekly event that we all enjoyed. If I had a friend sleeping over they would be dealt in too.
Poker became a part of my life from that time on, though I didn't play on a regular basis.
My opinion on teaching a child to play is if the child wants to play I would encourage it, but if the child didn't want to play I would do my best to encourage him or her in whatever things they were interested in. I would do like my parents and become involved in that too, doing my best to learn along with them. I would definitely not become what is known as a "little league mother" who forces her child to do something that the child really doesn't want to do.
Having that kind of support and encouragement is an important thing for any person, and especially for a child. If your son or daughter seems to be interested in your playing poker, ask him or her if they'd like you to teach them how to play. If they say yes, then you might have a poker player on your
hands. If the answer is no, just let it be because poker, like any other avocation, isn't for everyone.