music lessons question - pushing?

[erbear]

I push nothing on my kids. I’m not into fighting a battle that I’m not going to win for something that only I care about. One of my kids is into music. The other is not. One is into sports, the other not so much. Both are doing fine

[gt7301b]

Oct 18, 2020 7:21:06 GMT -5 cosmowife said:

I appreciate everyone who is saying to not push. However, how do you know if your child is truly not interested, versus just being lazy? If I did things based solely on my boys’ interests, they wouldn’t do anything other than Minecraft all day (which is basically all they do all day anyway). I am very musical and feel that learning to read music is an important skill that can’t really be made up at a later date. It has been a huge struggle to get either one to practice piano and neither has touched a piano since March. DS1 wanted to join band and picked the saxophone, but again won’t even pick it up between lessons. I honestly think it is laziness rather than a lack of interest.

My son is only 4 so we haven't quite gotten to this point yet, but I think it is going to be one of the finest lines we walk as a parent.  In my opinion it isn't always laziness, but a lack of interest. 

My current philosophy is I want you doing something other than spending the day on the computer and I don't really care what it is.  I will provide him with the opportunity to do different things, but if you aren't doing things other than playing computer games/ watching TV I am going to just turn them off.   I think the key is to help them find something that they enjoy and realize that it may not be exactly what we enjoy doing.

I grew up in a house with parents who were musicians, but it wasn't my thing and I hated practicing cause my parents forced it on me.  If I had an instructor who required practicing I would have done it because I was a rule follower,  but I didn't want to listen to my parents.

I know it will get significantly harder when he gets older, but I am not opposed to shutting off the electronics entirely if he isn't leaving the house.