Reply to DD claims to want to continue playing instrument but has horrible attitude toward practice. Stop?

Forum Index » Tweens and Teens

Reply to "DD claims to want to continue playing instrument but has horrible attitude toward practice. Stop?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]DD, 10 YO, has been playing her instrument for almost two years.  She is the one who asked to learn this particular instrument and begged for lessons---which we were happy to provide; the point is simply that we were not the ones who imposed it on her.  I know that no child really likes practice, but her unwillingness seems unreasonable to me (but maybe I just don't know what is normal, hence this post).  She drags her feet constantly about doing it, takes any excuse not to, and if there's a task her teacher gives her for practice that she doesn't like, she doesn't do it at all willingly and sometimes not at all.  It is a constant battle and I am sick of it since we are spending a lot of money and time on this for her.

Based on all this, I would gladly simply stop the whole thing.  But when I mention that we are seriously considering stopping, she keeps asking us not to and says that she really likes it and wants to continue, and I know she enjoys the actual lessons.  Her teacher says she is making progress, just not as much as she would make if she did what she is supposed more often.

So here are my questions for anyone who has BTDT:

--What is "normal" reluctance to practice at this age?  She eventually does it, but as I said, not without daily battles.

--I've told her that we are seriously considering stopping entirely and that we expect her to practice willingly and properly if she wants to continue.  We always follow through, so this isn't an idle comment; we are fully prepared to pull the plug.  How long would be a reasonable amount of time to give her before that decision?  She has not really changed her attitude at all since we had this conversation, so I'm inclined to not wait that long before stopping.

Any advice welcome!  TIA.

[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics