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I am not glad because they chose the activities and were abusive... but I think I had a weird/ unusual situation! If the parents are reasonable then that's another story! I think a musical instrument is one that has a lot of benefits.

I wish my parents forced me to stick with dance. I finally begged to quit piano because I hated my teacher. It would have been better if I could have communicated that a different teacher would have been nice.

We are developing a "rule" that E will have to stick with an activity for at least one season or certain stretch of time. We joke that piano or guitar is imperative because it will help him get girls in college, lol! My husband was certainly thankful that his parents didn't let him quit easily.

My parents didn't force me to stick with anything, I hated quitting! When I was 12 I had to choose between quitting ballet or violin because it was too much with extra training for my bat mitzvah coming up, and I was agonized about it. My mom ended up making the decision for me and I was furious because I wanted to keep doing all of it even though I hated ballet at that stage: we were learning pointe and thats just owwwww!

Yes I am so glad that my parents forced me to stick with golf and music! I hated golfing when I was little, I felt like such a loser! But now, it's an activity that DH and I can do together. It was so much fun during our "dating" years and we got engaged and married on the golf course.
I also hated practicing violin and piano but I've continued my violin and am in an orchestra now. I also was able to travel to Europe with my youth orchestra in high school. It's nice now that I can play for enjoyment now, not cause mom is making me.

I wish my parents forced me to stick things out. I was allowed to qhit everything I started and to this day I don't have any talents.

My parents took away all other extracurricular things other than piano and my part time jobs! Haha. I am glad that they made me stick with piano as long as they did because it made it ridiculously easy to pick up any instrument I wanted.

I kinda wish my parents had forced me to stick to piano lessons. They just let me quit it. Now as a singer it would be great to know how to play an instrument too.

My mom made me take piano for 8yrs, and it was one of the reasons for our horrible relationship. I had other interests, but for some reason it was important to her that I play piano.

For this reason I won't force my kids to do anything, except to stick with short-term commitments (e.g., if you're in soccer, you're in for the season). I just think it's so disrespectful of kids as individuals to force them into activities they have no interest in.

I think schools where you learn about your family's culture or religion are a little different. But again, I'm not going to tell my kid, we're Korean and you're going to Korean school, that's that. If a school can't make the material interesting to the kids, it's a bad school and a waste of time. We would find other ways to round out this part of DC's education.

I actually wish my parents had forced me a little harder to stick with things!

I danced my whole childhood and was once selected for an advanced class with girls several years older than me. I was a very shy child and freaked out over it. I wish my parents had talked to me and made me stick it out! It was a great opportunity!

I think my rule will be that my kids have to finish out the "season" If they truly hate it, they don't have to sign up again. They need to understand that activities cost money (usually nonrefundable) and that it impacts others when you quit.

No. My mother wanted to achieve successes that she hadn't been able to through me. All it did was make me hate the activities that she'd guilted and shamed me into continuing. It left me really hating physical activity, in particular, which was directly linked to me gaining 60 pounds after high school. It has been a long road for me to try to come back from the anger that I felt about being forced into activities that were above my physical ability.

I've had to start from scratch as an adult in terms of finding joy in exercise, and these days I'm pretty in to it. But I will never, never make the mistake of forcing my child into an activity. I was really miserable as a child, and this was one of the big reasons. I think it's fine to encourage your child, to support them, and to help them to find activities that really make them feel challenged and happy. But the moment you're doing it for yourself, and not for them - you're in trouble.

@sarac: totally! We were forced to do soo many things I hated for my dad's ego. Marching band in late fall at night in Wisconsin? Going to only the college on his list... choosing only an occupation he approves of (there are only three...)

Yes and no. I am glad I was forced to take piano for 10 years, but in all honesty, even if we had a piano I doubt I would play very often. On the other hand, my parents forced me to play soccer until high school. I was a terrible athlete and it was an awful experience.

I'm thankful they made me keep learning things that I hated at the time...golf, tennis, skiing. I wish they would have pushed me harder to stick with volleyball (quit after freshman year) and basketball (flat out refused to play.)

And maybe if I had been skiing instead of snowboarding I wouldn't have broken my wrist. I can't be trusted to make my own decisions.