Child Skills and Interests

[caizah33]

Has anyone figured out what to show your child to increase certain interests? Farming, Rancher, and Academic are pretty easy to figure out but for Athlete, Art, and Music I'm not sure what to show them.

[Whimsy]

(I know in the OP it's stated that Rancher is easy, but I wanted to leave my findings here anyway in case it helps someone.)

For interest in Rancher, so far I've had luck in Year 2 showing Matthew's daughter milk, eggs (saying a chick will hatch from it, even if it isn't fertile), fodder (she says it's stinky, but doesn't seem negatively impacted by it), the milker, and the brush. Also, show her chickens/ducks and the cat, if you have it. I'm not sure if the wool clippers do anything, but I show it anyway. She seems afraid of the dog as a toddler but loves it in Year 3. She's also put off by wool and makes a sound of disdain, so I avoided showing her that as a baby. In the original Gamecube version, just taking good care of your animals seemed to impact Rancher, according to guides. Haven't tried gifting it as a young child. Also, supposedly if you befriend Takakura, it will impact the child's interest in Ranching.

Edit: Just remembered -- Befriending Gustafa and Lumina impact interest in Music, befriending Sully and Hugh impacts interest in Athlete, befriending Gordy impacts Art, etc.

[Rule34_Sniper]

I was testing a few things and I noticed if you make everyone hate you, but keep one person as a friend/neutral, you'll get major like points from that person when your kid grows up to the next stage,
Van, I think, is unable to hate you, so you get a big boost of Art when your toddler goes into a child. (I also had the drawing pad in my bag the whole time and checked if they gained anything while I slept. Nothing was going up.)

Ex.
Rock child getting a big boost in Art without showing her anything.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2999210467
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2999210501

So who you majority friend may play a big part, or my constant 24-hour sleeping schedule screwed something up or I messed up on another factor all together.

[AsianGirlLover]

Who you become friends with and what you show your child impact their development.

If you want your child to be a musician, befriend/marry Lumina, and be friendly with her grandmother and butler.

I want to clarify that what you DON’T do is just as important as what you do. Don’t show your child things that would interest them in farming, art, athletics, etc.