Strollerderby

I scrapbook.  I'm not a scrapbook      or anything.  I like the idea of leaving something sweet for my kids when they get older.  They love looking at their "books" and one hopefully they will appreciate their mom's "benign and bland hobby."  I cross stitch too.  

What kind of hobby would you suggest for a 40 yo mom with 3 kids (ages 18,3 and 5 years)????  Skydiving???  Underwater basket weaving????  Urban car surfing????

Why is a hobby like this "bland"?  Because it doesn't involve high speeds or crash helmets or exotic places or fights or peril (aside from papercuts)?  Or because it's the domain of women and associated with married women with children who stay home and raise kids?  Could it be that it's not the hobby that's bland and benign, but our perception of the supposed majority of its devotees?  Is someone perhaps a little dismayed with her lot in life and projecting a value judgement onto a pastime that is not really inherently one thing or another?

I scrapbook.  I've done it since college, and I'm not that far out of college.  I'm not married and don't intend to be any time soon, and I don't have kids.  My mother and I go through old photos and she tells me stories, and my father helps me with layouts.  We often wind up throwing paper clips at each other and laughing hard enough to have to put the scissors down.  I also do competitive ballroom and social dance, and I go hiking in the Sierras and visit Asia and sing dreadful karaoke and break hearts right, left and center.  Nothing bland or benign about any of that, is there?

PS: I listen to "This American Life" archived podcasts while I scrapbook, so that I have something interesting to say when I'm finished.  That way no one can tell me my brain is in atrophy mode when I sit down at my scrap table.