Think with me for a moment. Pick a time you presented an idea to your boss. Do you remember your excitement and motivation?
Now, recall how you felt when your boss suggested "improvements" to your idea, or worse, a better way to do it. Sucks, right?
Deep inside, we know that unprompted feedback can have this effect on us: It can ruin our motivation and fun.
Yet, we do this very thing at home.
Your young daughter comes to you with a silly play in mind, and you want to tune it to make sense. You see your teenage son trying to fix his moped, and you can't resist walking up to him to share your "wisdom."
We want to be helpful to our kids. We want them to learn the proper way to do things, from playing to working. This comes from a good intent, but the outcome is usually not great.
We steal something from them when we meddle with our kids' activities without being asked. Sometimes, we rob them of a valuable learning opportunity by trial and error. Other times we completely suck out the fun from the activity.
Being a good dad means letting your children know they can turn to you for help if they want. You can even offer, gently, to help. But try to simply engage in the activity the way they want you to first.