The New Hobby Dilemma: how many classes should you take before knowing it's not for you?
Children come with a host of undiscovered talents. We don't know what they will be good at. We don't now whether they will take to swimming like a duck to water, or if they will splash and cry and splash some more and scream the place down and try every trick in the book to convince us they don't need to learn to swim.
Whilst swimming is a non-negotiable for us (being a life saver it is compulsory attendance for our girls), other hobbies are all up for debate.
Ballet dancing, horse-riding, singing, piano-playing, rugby, karate, street dance, gymnastics, cheerleading....... They are some of the many childhood activities on offer for our children and our children may be brilliant at them.
They may also be rubbish.
So how many classes do you insist they go to before allowing them to say, "I don't want to do it anymore"? Should we insist they make the effort, as not everything will necessarily click straight away. Or do we assume that if it's their talent then they, and us, will magically know straight away?
Is there such a thing as "being a natural"?
And if they are brilliant at it, but hate it, what then?
What do you think?
You can also read the debate about the gender-specific nature of some childhood activities at "Why is it OK for little girls to love dinosaurs, but not OK for little boys to love Barbie?"
Interesting one! I was just thinking earlier that maybe mine aren't having enough opportunities - they both do swimming lessons but nothing else. My girl gave up on ballet and tap and also Rainbows but the boy has mentioned he'd like to do Beavers. I wish they would get stuck into something and find something they love but at the same time don't want to push them. It's a tricky one!!
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