4 ms·

I wish I was pushed as a child to play the piano. And I did it for my child. He endured it for a year. He's talented and he's at the beginner's level, but when

I wish I was pushed as a child to play the piano. And I did it for my child. He endured it for a year. He's talented and he's at the beginner's level, but when we observed closely, he didn't want to practise. He only did it when we threatened him with stopping the lessons. So we just let it go. Now we have a piano at the house. He sometimes plays whatever he likes. Maybe he will pick it up later in his life. Maybe I will pick it up. All in all, I guess there is no one good way of raising a kid.

girvo 4y ago
My parents were similar (I played trombone, though I was terrible at it. Or I felt I was anyway). One interesting thing, is the thing I am best at, I had to sneak and scrape and fight tooth and nail to do, which was learn to program on our PC: the thing that is my life and career now two decades on. I've been programming my whole life, but all throughout my childhood my parents hated the idea of me spending my time on the computer tapping away at GameMaker v4 and work through QBasic and the C++ book a family friend gave me (I think I was using the Digital Mars compiler at the time?).
- piperswe 4y ago
  Same story here - my parents fought the uphill battle until they ran out of steam to try and get me to do anything else, but my career has basically shut them up on that now
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- redshirtrob 4y ago
  Hello there. That's eerily familiar. For me it was sports (although I was quite good at baseball and soccer) and Turbo Pascal. My parents, especially my Mom, put up a huge resistance to me programming. I had to promise to try out for the HS basketball team (easily my worst sport) to get a computer. I'd been cut the previous two years so of course I barely made the team that time. My Mom was convinced I was sitting in the computer room playing games. When I told her: "No, I was programming", she asked what I was programming. Of course I told her I was writing a game, as all kids learning to program were. She responded: "See! Games!" as though she'd somehow proven her point. But, like you, I've made my career from programming and it's treated me quite well for the most part.
zepolen 4y ago
- nurettin 4y ago
  - zepolen 4y ago
    I feel sorry for your kid(s), the upside is that they'll never talk to you again once they realize you're toxic.
    - nurettin 4y ago
      Ok, you can go back to Twitter now.
      - dang 4y ago
        Please don't take HN threads further into flamewar, regardless of how bad another comment is or you feel it is. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
    - dang 4y ago
      Personal attacks will get you banned here, regardless of how wrong someone else is or you feel they are. If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.
badpun 4y ago
I've noticed a pattern among the childhood stories of young musicians (and artists in general). They either found the instrument fascinating on its own and were just enjoying toying with it [1] or were surrounded by people (parents, family) who enojoy playing music, and that enjoyment infected them. On the other hand, the people I know who were forced by parents to practice piano for years have not touched it ever in their adult life. They treated it as just another chore, such as say biology class at school - something they have to do, but have no interest in and will drop from their mind as soon as they don't have to do it any more. [1] A common subscenario here is some kind of dysfunction (prolonged illness, dysfunctional family, not fitting with other children for some reason) which pushed the kid into a lonely parallel universe of just sitting on their own and praticing their art for years.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

girvo 4y ago

My parents were similar (I played trombone, though I was terrible at it. Or I felt I was anyway). One interesting thing, is the thing I am best at, I had to sneak and scrape and fight tooth and nail to do, which was learn to program on our PC: the thing that is my life and career now two decades on. I've been programming my whole life, but all throughout my childhood my parents hated the idea of me spending my time on the computer tapping away at GameMaker v4 and work through QBasic and the C++ book a family friend gave me (I think I was using the Digital Mars compiler at the time?).

piperswe 4y ago
Same story here - my parents fought the uphill battle until they ran out of steam to try and get me to do anything else, but my career has basically shut them up on that now
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
redshirtrob 4y ago
Hello there. That's eerily familiar. For me it was sports (although I was quite good at baseball and soccer) and Turbo Pascal. My parents, especially my Mom, put up a huge resistance to me programming. I had to promise to try out for the HS basketball team (easily my worst sport) to get a computer. I'd been cut the previous two years so of course I barely made the team that time. My Mom was convinced I was sitting in the computer room playing games. When I told her: "No, I was programming", she asked what I was programming. Of course I told her I was writing a game, as all kids learning to program were. She responded: "See! Games!" as though she'd somehow proven her point. But, like you, I've made my career from programming and it's treated me quite well for the most part.

zepolen 4y ago

nurettin 4y ago
- zepolen 4y ago
  I feel sorry for your kid(s), the upside is that they'll never talk to you again once they realize you're toxic.
  - nurettin 4y ago
    Ok, you can go back to Twitter now.
    - dang 4y ago
      Please don't take HN threads further into flamewar, regardless of how bad another comment is or you feel it is. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - dang 4y ago
    Personal attacks will get you banned here, regardless of how wrong someone else is or you feel they are. If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.

badpun 4y ago

I've noticed a pattern among the childhood stories of young musicians (and artists in general). They either found the instrument fascinating on its own and were just enjoying toying with it [1] or were surrounded by people (parents, family) who enojoy playing music, and that enjoyment infected them. On the other hand, the people I know who were forced by parents to practice piano for years have not touched it ever in their adult life. They treated it as just another chore, such as say biology class at school - something they have to do, but have no interest in and will drop from their mind as soon as they don't have to do it any more. [1] A common subscenario here is some kind of dysfunction (prolonged illness, dysfunctional family, not fitting with other children for some reason) which pushed the kid into a lonely parallel universe of just sitting on their own and praticing their art for years.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]