OpinionLearning Curve: Father's passion for diving brings sons closer

For students, summer holidays are synonymous with play. This is essential to children’s development, contributing to their cognitive, physical, social and emotional well-being.

Play also gives parents great opportunities to engage with their children. But adults’ workplace demands, coupled with the increased attention to study and enrichment activities for students, makes such chances harder to come by.

One way is to involve the children in a personal passion over the summer break.

Businessman Tony Lit Wing-tung has been doing just that for years. He has passed on his love for scuba-diving and the ocean to his two teenage sons.

“Sharing a hobby with children is an excellent way of giving both knowledge and confidence to them. As children and parents are interested in the same topics, intimate communication is established between them,” says Lit, who has been diving for 33 years.

Sharing a hobby changes the dynamics of the parent-child relationship, Lit says. “It resembles one between friends in which both are willing and eager to discuss and learn from each other. Involving children in our own activities makes them feel important. A bit of encouragement and explanation can go a long way to help the relationship develop.”