Stop Trying to Make Your Kids Creative

Becky Kennedy and Austin Kleon challenge conventional wisdom around raising creative children, advocating for recognizing and protecting the creativity children already possess, rather than focusing on teaching or instilling it through structured means.

Children Are Inherently Creative and Imaginative, Requiring No External Enhancement

Kennedy observes that “raise a creative kid” has become a universal mandate for modern parents, with originality now considered an indispensable skill for the future. However, after engaging with Austin Kleon's insights, she realizes that creativity is not something parents need to install in children. Kleon insists that children are naturally creative and imaginative—qualities that adults work hard to reclaim.

Kids View the World With the Wonder and Perspective Artists Strive to Recapture

Kleon compares the way children perceive the world to an artist’s mindset, highlighting how kids already see their surroundings with vibrant, psychedelic wonder and responsiveness, unfiltered by social expectations or branding. Children process raw sensory input directly, experiencing the world as a series of exciting and novel discoveries, something that adults and trained artists intentionally strive to achieve but often lose over time.

Parents Hinder Children's Creativity Through Expectations and Structures

Both Kennedy and Kleon agree that, rather than fostering creativity, parents can inadvertently stifle it through overbearing expectations, rigid structures, or the desire to evaluate and direct creative output. Kleon shares that most requests he receives to write creativity books for children miss the point—it’s adults, not children, who need guidance on how to re-engage with creativity. Left alone, children need no prompting to be imaginative.

Creating Conditions Enables Children's Creativity

Kleon emphasizes that instead of instruction, children need an enabling environment to create freely. Drawing a parallel with musicians preparing their studios, he argues that good creative "vibes," ample space, accessible materials, and minimal obstacles are more valuable than formal teaching.

Set Up Children's Environments Like Musicians Prep Studios: Create Good Vibes, Remove Obstacles, Trust the Process

Kleon describes how his son Jules draws prolifically, enabled by a supportive environment where access to materials is abundant—his family goes through a ream of copy paper every few days—and there’s no pressure to judge the work or meet external standards. Such a setting allows children to immerse themselves in the flow of creation, celebrating and moving naturally from one project to the next. Kennedy likens this to bands in the studio, noting that too much focus on outcome or potential success ruins the creative “vibe.” Trusting the process, rather than obsessing over results, is critical.

Evaluating Creative Output Can Inhibit Children

The pressure to analyze or explain art—such as requiring children to write an essay explaining why they like a piece—can inhibit immediate, genuine engagement. Kleon teaches his sons that it's okay to simply like something without intellectual justification. Kennedy notes that permitting children to trust their bodily responses before their brains rationalize them ...

Austin Kleon and Becky Kennedy discuss how creativity in children often flourishes when they have the freedom to play and break away from adult-imposed constraints. Their exchange explores how playful improvisation and reduced pressure to "be good" lead to genuine creative breakthroughs.

Kids Innovate Best Without Adult Constraints

Kleon observes that many creative breakthroughs in music and art arise when artists are simply experimenting rather than trying to craft masterpieces. He cites the example of famous bands: Radiohead, who wrote “Creep” while goofing off, and Led Zeppelin, whose “Stairway to Heaven” was an unconventional creation that turned into a classic. Kleon connects this spontaneity in art to his parenting, noting that his own children taught him that “when you’re messing around, the most creative stuff happens.”

Kennedy adds that many children labeled as defiant, uncooperative, dramatic, or “too much” are often displaying creativity that lacks an appropriate outlet. She quotes Kleon’s idea that “kids are most creative when they’re supposed to be doing something else.” This reframing suggests that so-called difficult kids may, in fact, be stifled innovators, struggling within boundaries rather than resisting for its own sake.

Breaking Free From the Need to Be "Good" Is Essential For Discovering Authentic, Innovative Work

Kleon shares from his own experience as a creator that genuine innovation often begins after leaving rigid institutional structures. Once liberated from the expectations of school, he discovered what made his work unique, allowing himself to experiment with things that were not “serious” or traditional—like his books that blend pictures and words, something frowned upon inside creative writing workshops where formal rules dominate. Without the need to conform (“be good”), creatives can pursue unconventional work, paving the way to true innovation.

Parents Can Use Containers and Playful Prompts to Facilitate Creative Breakthroughs

Kennedy offers a story about how playful, improvised games can transform daily routines and unleash creativity in both parents and children. When her youngest child was repeatedly stalling at tooth brushing time, she invented an on-the-spot game called “Brush a Brush a Bruise Bruise.” Without planning, she blurted out that she ...

Austin Kleon and Becky Kennedy highlight the importance of respecting and nurturing children's specific obsessions as gateways to learning, creativity, and the development of valuable research skills.

Children's Specific Interests Reflect Natural Creativity and Shouldn't Be Suppressed

Obsession, as John Baldessari famously said, is a necessary ingredient for creative success—talent alone is insufficient. Austin Kleon echoes this, noting that the quality separating creators from mere participants is a willingness to be deeply, sometimes narrowly, obsessed. Children naturally embody this quality, often fixating intensely on objects or concepts that fascinate them. For example, Kleon's own son became obsessed with engines—wanting to observe, photograph, and draw them. This singular focus not only tapped into the child’s creativity but also drove Kleon to learn about combustion engines himself, something he might never have explored otherwise.

Becky Kennedy recounts a parent questioning a four-year-old’s fascination with garage doors, wondering if it signaled a problem that needed to be managed. She suggests that rather than seeing such passions as distractions or issues, it is crucial for parents to recognize the immense opportunity in a child's intense curiosity. Attempts to suppress these interests risk stalling the child’s growth and trapping them at the threshold of new understanding, instead of guiding them onward.

Expanding a Child's Obsession Through Inquiry Creates Diverse Learning Pathways

Rather than resisting or ignoring a child’s obsession, parents can use it as a launchpad for broader inquiry and learning. Austin Kleon illustrates this with the garage door example: asking questions like, “Who do you think made the exit sign?” or “Does the building next door have different exit signs?” transforms simple curiosity into a multi-faceted exploration. What may begin as an interest in garage doors can spiral into conversations about urban planning, architecture, technology, history, and more.

By following a child's lead and approaching their fixation with openness and curiosity, parents can help children make connections across different disciplines, expanding their view of the world. As Kleon puts it, “the door is the door,” but it can also be an entry point to countless intellectual journeys if approached with imagination and inquiry.

Librarian Mindset Empowers Children's Research Skills and Independence Through Collaborative Answer-Seeking

Austin Kleon advocates for a “librarian mindset” in parenting, suggesting that when children come with their obsessions and questions, parents do not need all the answers themselves. Instead, they can mode ...

Play serves a vital role in activating creativity and supporting mental health. Austin Kleon reflects on the work of Stuart Brown, emphasizing that play symbolizes activation and aliveness, which directly contrasts with the numbness and disconnection found in depression.

Play Differs From Work, Symbolizing Activation and Aliveness, Opposite to Depression and Numbness

Play signals life engagement, agency, and vitality. As Kleon explains, play makes you feel alive—whereas depression is experienced as a state of non-activation and numbness. For parents, play can serve as a method to reconnect with their sense of being present, especially when exhaustion or depression have dulled their vitality. In daily routines, opportunities for play help shift a parent's focus away from monotony or discouragement and back to the joy of being engaged with their children.

Children's Play & Openness: Traits Creative People Cultivate

Children possess an openness and willingness to not know that is central to play and to creativity itself. Kleon notes that kids ask basic, naive questions—such as "Do trees talk?"—which challenge adult assumptions and create space for discovery. He cites works like "Philosophy and the Young Child," noting that Socrates’s method mirrored the question-asking approach of children. Kennedy adds that kids are very comfortable with not-knowing, while Kleon elaborates that not-knowing sits at the heart of creative work. Quoting Donald Barthelme, Kleon suggests that creative people thrive on uncertainty: when you don’t know what’s possible, possibilities abound. This openness is what Zen practitioners call "beginner's mind," the mindset where possibilities remain endless, unlike the few possibilities in an "expert’s mind."

Practicing Presence In ...

Parenting experts Becky Kennedy and Austin Kleon explore inventive games and simple strategies that help parents access creativity, playfulness, and connection with their children, emphasizing the transformative effects of even the silliest activities at home.

Spontaneous Games Engage Kids, Teaching Parents Creativity

Simple, spontaneous games emerge as solutions to classic parenting challenges, teaching both parents and children how creativity can transform mundane or difficult moments.

"Brush a Brush a Bruise" Evolved From Delaying Bedtime Into a Joyful Game For Families, Solving a Parenting Challenge

Becky Kennedy recounts how her youngest child stalled at bedtime by resisting brushing his teeth. In her frustration, Kennedy spontaneously invented a game called "Brush a Brush a Bruise." Without knowing the rules herself, she created excitement by withholding details, triggering her child's curiosity. The game involved chanting "brush a brush a bruise bruise," and when she switched up the pattern, her son had to run to the sink and spit before she reached it. What started as an improvised solution became a beloved, joyful activity that her older children also wanted to play. Kennedy reflects how this playful improvisation not only solved a nightly struggle but also relieved her stress and created cherished family memories.

"'What's on My Butt' Anchored Isolation, Showing Play's Power to Sustain Families"

Austin Kleon shares "What's on My Butt," a game discovered during the pandemic when isolation was at its height. The rules are simple: a parent lies face-down on the couch or bed with eyes closed while their children place an object on the parent’s butt, and the parent guesses what it is. This lighthearted, silly activity became a vital anchor for Kleon's family, lifting spirits and bringing laughter during difficult times. Kennedy echoes the value of these games and suggests writing them down and sharing them with partners or friends to encourage collective playfulness, even if it feels awkward at first.

Children's Books Like "the Book With No Pictures" Prompt Participation, Facilitating Play Without Parental Preparation or Creativity

Children’s books can act as ready-made containers for playful interaction, inviting participation from both parent and child while removing the pressure for parents to be creative on their own.

These Books Make Parents and Children Vocalize Silly Sounds and Statements, Removing Self-Consciousness That Blocks Adult Playfulness

Kennedy highlights "The Book With No Pictures" as a perennial favorite that forces the adult reader to vocalize silly phrases and nonsensical sounds, such as "Bloggity bloggity glibbity globbity beep boop." The book’s structure turns reading into a shared performance, removing self-consciousness and lowering the barriers that sometimes keep adults from entering their children’s world of play. The joy from shared laughter and broken inhibitions can transform bedtime and other routines into extraordinary moments.

Shared Laughter Forms a Meaningful Connection and Often Highlights a Child's Day, as Reported Through Reflection Practices Like Rose, Bud, and Thorn

Kennedy describes using the reflection practice "Rose, Thorn, and Bud" at bedtime with her son, identifying the best part of the day, the hardest part, and what they’re looking forward to. On a night after reading "The Book With No Pictures" toge ...