Piano Time

December 2009 Piano Recital

December 2008 Piano Recital

Tonight was an interesting night. I listened to my "beginner" children play the piano and so badly wanted them to be better. Now, don't get me wrong, they both did a great job tonight. I was extremely proud. But you know, they were still, "beginners". As I listened to the older student I so badly wanted my children to be at that stage already.

After the recital, I was talking with the mom of our piano teacher. My jaw dropped to the ground as we discussed "Miss Michelle's" piano routine when she was younger. I have my children practice around 15-20 minutes each day and sometimes we miss a day or two. Well, "Miss Michelle" would practice 1-2 HOURS!!!! per day. As she got older, memorized 35 pages of music. Can you imagine??? I was in awe of this mother who stuck with it.

It was a funny moment in time for me. I always feel like I am such a mean mom when I enforce certain rules or have expectations that seem unreasonable to my children. Every time I have my children play the piano rather than do something "fun", somehow I feel like I'm cheating them. They are sure to let me know how I am ruining their young lives. But tonight as I watched the amazing Miss Michelle play the piano I realized it was not without a major price. Everything we do in life comes with a price. If we want to be amazing then we have to really work at it. I was so grateful for the the moments I had to talk with Miss Michelle's mom and remind myself that part of my job is to push my children, to be mean. I can't expect them to push themselves. What child is going to choose practicing the piano over playing with a friend or watching TV, not too many.

As I watched the mother-daughter interaction I didn't see any anger between the two because "Mom didn't let me play with my friends when I was a kid". Let me tell you what I did see. A mother who was extremely proud of her daughter and a daughter who was full of confidence. I will tell you what, I don't care how many hours you spend playing with friends or watching TV, you will never get those results.

Tonight was a success. I left the recital extremely proud of how my children performed and I was reminded not to waste the days away doing nothing or feeling guilty because I'm too hard on my children, they will appreciate it later. Plus, I could remind them about practicing for 2 HOURS!!!