At Home with My Kids | Pushing Your Kids

Archives

• Current Entries
• January 2008
• December 2007
• November 2007
• October 2007
• September 2007
• August 2007
• July 2007
• June 2007
• May 2007
• April 2007
• March 2007
• February 2007
• January 2007
• December 2006
• November 2006

Search:

At Home with My Kids

This forum is for Stay-at-Home Moms. Click Here to Add a New Entry

<< Prev | Main

Pushing Your Kids

Posted by: sj on January 23, 2008 at 11:06AM EST

Does anyone else have trouble knowing when to push their kids and when to step back? I was having this conversation with a friend of mine the other day. My daughter just got her pointe shoes for ballet-- quite a milestone! She has loved ballet, and has worked hard to get to this point. She had a little mini-crisis though, deciding whether or not she should make ballet her career, or go on to college. She's 12. I told her that there was plenty of time to figure that out. She does have a natural grace, and I love to watch her dance, but I don't push her.

My friends' daughter is younger and takes ballet, but has started playing soccer. He personally thinks soccer is a more natural fit for her, but he's a guy. I suggested he try not to lead her down the path he wants, and let her decide. She's young enough that she can do both right now, and figure it out for herself.

Do you push your kids? Why or why not?

(2) Comments

Posted by: Bill on February 10, 2008 12:39PM EST

I agree with Sue F. I have two boys who wanted to play base ball in elementary school. They both wanted to quit the first year when they found out they could not. My youngest spent more time on top of the dugout than in it.

I insisted that both of my sons stick it out and by the end of the first season they loved it. By the third season they were so much bigger than the other boys on their team that they actually became the team since they were good at any position they played, but mostly one would pitch and the other played catcher.

Needless to say their achievements impressed the other boys as well and they all played for 5 years earning the top honors each year. They also went on to play basketball and football as well when baseball season was over.

Like I said in another comment, kids depend on us as parents to make the decisions even if they don't agree sometimes. They may be upset with our decisions now, but they will thank us later.

Posted by: Sue F. on January 24, 2008 7:51AM EST

I don't push mine as a rule. I guess I don't want to cause additional stress in his life since I know kids have enough of that. But he did ask for a guitar several years ago for Christmas. I told him if he got one, he was going to take lessons because something that expensive is not going to be a toy he just plunks for a while and then puts away never to be touched again.

Long story short, he received the guitar, didn't want to take lessons, but I made him try them anyway. That was about three years ago, he really has a gift for it and he's still playing after sticking with his lessons for almost two years.

I'm glad I pushed him to at least try. I guess that's pretty much my motto. Give it a try and see how you like it. And with sports, I always made him finish what he started. If he joined a team he had to go to all practices and games and finish out the season because he had made a commitment to a team. But then I would let him decide if he wanted to stop playing after that.