My son's imagination

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My husband and I made a decision about a year ago that my son was going to have limited screen time. We were so tired of him complaining whenever we did anything because he'd rather be home staring at a screen. I wanted my son to have a childhood filled with memories of things that didn't involve just watching stupid youtube videos all day. It was honestly one of the best decisions we made. My son has always had this active imagination that I genuinely admire. I love standing by his bedroom door and listening to him play with his legos and action figures. He is always so off the wall. As a kid, I also had an active imagination until the world around me squashed it. I remember I used to color my animals rainbow colors despite knowing that there isn't a pink and purple cat I enjoyed being different but one day I remember being told "cats aren't that color" and I stopped. My head was always in the clouds and then people kept telling me I needed to stay down here on earth and grow up and I did. I don't want that for my son. Some of the best people are imaginative and creative and they never fully grow up. It's one thing to be mature it's another to lose your inner child. I love seeing things my son draws and comes up with. When cleaning our room the other day my husband and I found some stories our son wrote and I couldn't help it I smiled. They were so full of imagination. One was about ants and it was an opinion piece but it still made us laugh. I can't remember everything in it but he said "ants have feelings too" as his reason for squishing them being wrong. I don't know it just never occurred to me that he cared so much about things like that but he does. It's why he got a bottle to catch a bug one day instead of killing it. He's terrified of bugs but he still cares about what happens to them. We also read something he wrote about an incident that sent him to the hospital. I read it and laughed in part because it was bogus. It never happened to him. My husband goes "I don't remember this" and I was like "that's because it didn't happen". My son made up an incident where he fell off his bed and hurt himself. He added a "wee ooo wee ooo" next to the ER trip to mimic ambulance noises which amused me. My son has had enough trips to the ER he probably wouldn't have had to make one up but a lot of those happened when he was younger so he may not remember them. I guess I didn't realize he actually has a talent for writing. He never enjoyed writing so I couldn't picture him being good at it. Reading through his stuff made me realize there is some talent there. He has this amazing imagination and when he puts it into words he comes up with some funny stuff. I throw away a lot of his papers but I kept those. He isn't a great writer but there's potential there. He has so much potential for so many things if he'd work on honing his skills. He also has the potential to be a decent artist. Some of his artwork is really good while others I can't believe it's the same kid who drew the other picture. When he gets creative he does some great things. I have always tried to encourage the things he is interested in. When he wanted to be a doctor I bought him a doctor's set. When he said he wanted to be a scientist I bought him science stuff. When he told me he wanted to be an artist I bought him an art kit. He loves building so I buy him LEGO sets. I don't know what he'll be but if he enjoys it I want him to pursue it and figure it out. I want him to try things and figure out what he's good at and what he loves doing. I have tried to get him to take classes in certain things but he doesn't have an interest in doing that. I don't want to force things on him but I want him to understand he can't give up if he wants to be truly good at something. I want him to use his imagination and creativity and go places with it. I don't want him to lose that part of him just because he's told to grow up. You can be grounded and still keep that part of yourself. You can still be mature and keep your inner child. I want him to have a firm grasp of the world but still know that the sky is the limit if you're motivated enough. I hope that he always keeps enough of that child in him to not grow up to be miserable because he's doing what he thinks he has to. I want him to be well rounded and know that it's ok to still be a kid sometimes. He might be a writer or an artist when he grows up or maybe he'll be a scientist as these are all things he seems to enjoy now but whatever it is I just want him to be happy and be the amazing caring funny person he is.