Yes, like with everything in life there will always be a balance. No harm in exposing your child to lots of different experiences but no point forcing your interests, or what you think they SHOULD be interested in, upon them.

Kids often inexplicably have entirely different interests to their own parents. My sister was quite good at art - my parents couldn't hold a pencil! I was always interested in history and politics right from the time when I was given a transfer set of medieval battlefields when I was about five (not sure who gave me that as a present - but THANK YOU!). My parents neither dismissed nor encouraged those interests. A bit of encouragement would have been good but if they'd started taking me down to the library to get out Jean Plaidy books it would have seemed like their interest, not mine. As it was, I did it on my own and then did history at uni. It was MY thing, not theirs.

My DP was always interested in trains. He had that passion from six years of age. He's now a train driver and has his own website about trains. He's a NUT. Again, his parents encouraged him a bit but didn't push it.

Based on that, I could start showing my DD my fascinating collection of BBC documentaries about British history from a very early age. But you know what, I think I would initially be quite chuffed if she had the same passion as me but ultimately disappointed because I would rather she chose something for herself and started teaching me stuff about something I know nothing about. Who knows what that might be? I'll let her find out for herself.

And by the way, my friends and I joke about the "gifted" thing. I throw that word into conversation, tongue in cheek all the time. DD being able to put her thumb in her mouth and simultaneously put her finger up her nose - GIFTED!!!