KEEP WITH IT!
My grandma and grandpa Hales bought my parents a piano when I was in grade school. Both Stan and I took lessons for about three years. I remember hating piano. My practices were always on Wed. which was the same day the school did a three times a year skating party at Deleta. I was never able to go. For this reason and more.....I remember hating piano. Oh, how I cringed at the words, the dreaded, simple request to, "Practice the piano!"
After a few years Stan didn't take lessons anymore. I was still practicing, missing skating parties, attending recitals, and plunking away at the keys. I begged and begged my parents to let me quit. Of course, they knew the benefits and wanted me to play, especially since grandma and grandpa wanted it too and gave us a piano for that very purpose.
I remember my dad sitting down with me one evening and his piano proposition. "Kristi", he said, "I tell ya what.....if you will stick with piano until you are 18, I will give you $2,000 in cash to do whatever you want with. And, if at that time, you can look me in the eye with every ounce of honesty you obtain and can tell me you regret it, I will give you $1,000 more." Hmmmm.....right now, today, that sounds completely enticing. However, when I was in the fourth grade, and had no concept of money, it didn't tempt me for a minute. I think I stuck with piano another three months after that proposal, and then......I officially quit.
The reason I am rehashing old memories is because I now have grandma and grandpa Hales' piano in my home. After we all moved out of the house and it sat underplayed for years, merely a piece of furniture collecting dust in my parents' living room, I asked if I could have it so my kids could learn to play. Payton started piano this fall and has done well. She likes it, but it is a normal 8 year old child who doesn't always want to practice. She's also frustrated when she has new songs and they are difficult to learn.
This morning before Pay left for school we sat at the piano bench together, practicing away. She was irritable and a bit frustrated, and I began to worry. I thought to myself, "How am I going to get her to stick with this?" "What demands will I have for her?" "Will I bribe her like my dad did me?" I honestly have no clue! At this point I just think I'll make her and that is it. Oh, come on....how naive is that?
All I know is that I want her to keep with it. I know she will not regret it and will thank me later. You bet I regret quitting and really wish my parents had demanded I stick with it. But I can't blame them for not making me, absolutely not. We choose our battles, and listening to their ornery child complain, whine, fret,moan, and detest, wasn't theirs.
I sit baffled sometimes, that it seems like only yesterday I was the child protesting, and now I am the mother dealing with it first hand. Getting Payton to stick with it isn't going to be easy, but what is these days? The challenge will only make it all the more rewarding, right?! Oh, I'll just keep telling myself that........at least!
