Oddly, I have to disagree with Bosk's assumption, though. I think he's right about the safety aspect. Where I would have a problem is if he's training a 3 year old to be a future Olympic snowboarder. If she's expressed a genuine interest in it, which from the replies here I think improbable, then it'd be one thing. To me, though, it reeks of Earl Woods or Marv Marinovich.
I'm not saying it necessarily IS the case. Just saying that it very well COULD be. The point is, if I'm into a sport to the point where I am a pro, and I can look back and say, "Man, as much as training has advanced nowadays, as good as I am, I could have been exponentially better if I had this kind of training from the time I could walk," then it's a natural thing to then provide that when you have a kid. Maybe he's an overbearing Nazi who is determined to raise a little snowboarding machine from the time she pops out of the womb just for his own ego. Maybe he just wants to provide her the opportunity to have a lot of training from that time so that by the time she actually IS old enough to consent and affirmatively say, "yes this is something I want to do," she already has a HUGE head start by having a lot of advanced skills already ingrained and instinctual. Maybe something in between. Point is, we don't know, and there are a lot of potentially good or at least neutral motives for dad providing that opportunity from such a very young age.
That's fair enough.
Out of curiosity, do any of your kids have that level of fondness for your hobbies? My old man took me fishing, camping, sailing, and skiing, all things that he was super-keen on and quite good at, and aside from a moderate interest in camping I didn't develop any interest in these things. And he has no interest in video games, Asian chicks, and recreational drug use. Lifelong interests of mine. Just seems like an interest in hobbies, much less passions, aren't really something hereditary or socially developed.
You know, it's hard to say. They are 14 and 12 (boys) and 7 (girl). Between the three of them, they seem to like a lot of stuff my wife and I like. But that's because we have been doing that stuff with them since they were young. Some of it may likely stick with them through the years. Other stuff, they will let go of and realize it isn't their thing. Either way, that's cool. For me, the point isn't really trying to indoctrinate them into my interests. It's more about spending the time with them and teaching them skills. A lot of those skills will hopefully translate into other things that they find on their own. Some won't. That's cool too. And there are also things on the flip side that they have found interest in that I have had to try to learn and develop so I can teach them that I otherwise wouldn't really care much about. And even among the three of them, their interests often diverge in plenty of areas. Again, to me, it's about imparting what I DO know and love, and if they grow to love it, they've hopefully got a leg up by developing it early and I will have helped them develop that.
Going back to the snowboarding example, I could easily see a scenario where dude has three kids and does the same thing for all of them, and 30 years down the road has the following scenario: Kid #1 grows up to be a pro snowboarder. Maybe not Olympic level, but pro nonetheless, and is thankful to have developed those skills early to be really good at what she loves. Kid #2 grows up to be a casual snowboarder that is into plenty of other things in her "real life." But when she can get out on the slopes, she is grateful for the skills she developed early, and thankful for the memories with dad. Kid #3 hates all things snow and, as soon as she is able, goes in a completely different direction with her life and never goes into the outdoors at all. She doesn't have very good memories of snowboarding in particular, but has a decent relationship with dad because of the time he spent with her even though it wasn't her thing. Pretty likely. And I think most would be pretty okay with any of those three situations.
I'm going to go off on a bit of a tangent here based on something you posted. You and I both come from a generation where I think it is pretty common for kids to have grown up with VERY different interests than their parents. Some of that is just kind of the natural process of people growing up and coming up with their own identities. But there was also a VERY pervasive school of thought that emphasized independence from one's parents as well, no? Do you think that may also have played a part in it? I think our generation is less likely to have followed our parents' interests and hobbies in large part due to how we were raised in the '70s and '80s.