My parents made me take piano lessons from age 5-12. I never enjoyed the lessons and wanted to do something else but my mom wouldn't let me quit! My teacher finally convinced my mom that is was time to stop...she didn't enjoy teaching people who weren't interested!
I definitely won't force any activities on my LOs!
nectarine / 2886 posts
Violin and piano until I finished high school! I still remember pretending I was sick when I was in elementary school so that I wouldn't have to go to lessons or practice. Never worked.
pomelo / 5321 posts
My parents didn't but I wish they had. I hate that I don't have any hobbies, like piano, or a sport that I love.
cantaloupe / 6923 posts
I guess they kind of forced me to take piano but I didn't mind it too much. Now I'm so glad I learned. I'd say they were more the parents who wouldn't let me do most activities.
grapefruit / 4235 posts
I wish they had let me quit softball but they kept signing me up. I wasn't very good. And my mom was my scout leader, a softball coach...everything I was involved in she was too. I always wished I had some activity hat she wasn't the leader.
God that sounds terrible.
hostess / wonderful honeydew / 32460 posts
Piano lessons here too! I feel bad that I didn't try harder and practice more.. Especially since lessons weren't cheap!
grapefruit / 4649 posts
My parents never forced me to take anything but the deal was you had to finish the session for what you signed up for. I see myself having the same policy for or children with the exception of swimming- hopefully they will enjoy it but either way they will take lessons until I am convinced they are reasonably proficient.
wonderful grape / 20453 posts
Yep, piano lessons for me, too. Took lessons for 5 years and never really picked up on it. I wasn't good at it, period. I initially wanted to do them, then I wanted to quit, then they wouldn't let me quit. After a couple years, they should've just let me quit. Similar experience with basketball. They made me stick it out one more year. Then I got really good and enjoyed it. I won't make my kids do things, but I won't let them quit, either.
pomegranate / 3383 posts
When I was younger I did dance, figure skating and piano. My parents always let us quit when we wanted to but I kind of wish they hadn't. Dance and skating only last a year (we were lazy!) and piano went until I was in high school. I think they forced us to stay in piano for as long as we did.
GOLD / papaya / 10206 posts
I played softball starting at Tball when is as 5ish, they just kept signing me up every summer and I REALLY stunk. When I finally realized how bad I really was, I wanted to quit but my dad made me finish out the season. Following through and all that stuff. It was a good lesson, but I dreaded playing.
wonderful olive / 19353 posts
Chinese school and piano. I am so thankful they made me stick it out for Chinese school because it's so useful now. Plus, very few younger Chinese generations know how to read and write in traditional Chinese. I can read better than I can write, but still glad my parents made me go all 9 years!
Piano - I enjoyed it, but I think the number of hours my parents made me practice is what made me dislike it. I still play once in a blue moon now, but it's just to see if I can still play or not. Reading music beyond the staff has gotten a little difficult without a lil pre-familiarizing first.
pear / 1664 posts
I had to do Orchestra. I liked it at first but got sick of it really fast. Luckily my folks realized it. Probably helped that we'd been renting the instrument until then and the instructor said it was time to buy--they're expensive! Parents didn't want to spend the money unless I was 'invested' and I wasn't.
I didn't like this at the time, but now, I do like how my parents approached sports. I was not very active and was basically told I needed to pick a sport in 7th grade. I got to pick which one but they wanted me to get exercise and team involvement. I ended up picking one I really loved, got good at, was even the captain senior year. Great memories.
GOLD / eggplant / 11517 posts
No. I tried a million different sports/art/camps and if I hated it, I didn't have to do it anymore. I just moved on to something else. I was always enrolled in something.
pomegranate / 3716 posts
@Alivoo01: ACK, I haaated Chinese school!! I went for about 5 years, but can probably only read/write a handful of words. And my Mandarin is horrible 
So Chinese school for 5 years, violin lessons from ages 5 - 17, and SAT classes when I was in 8th grade!
OH, and KUMON math prep classes for about 2 years in middle school, yuck!
honeydew / 7444 posts
I had to take piano lessons from 5. I quit sometime in high school, but i really missed it so i asked if i could start again in university. I'm glad my parents pushed me!
cantaloupe / 6751 posts
Piano and violin- I hated them at the time but now I wish I would have tried harder
pomelo / 5331 posts
No. My parents had a policy where I could try whatever activity I wanted and if I liked it, I'd keep doing it. If I didn't, I could stop. Though my dad was kind of upset when I quit piano in 9th grade, seeing as how they'd, you know, BOUGHT A PIANO. But I did do it for a good 3 or 4 years!
My mom put me in ballet when I was in kindergarten because my teacher told her I had discipline problems related to my age (I'm an August baby) and that she'd hold me back a grade if they didn't get better. The "problems" amounted to, I didn't want to come in when they rang the recess bell and I was an excessive talker. Whatever. But I didn't love ballet. We did that for a year then tried jazz dance for a year, and I didn't like either so we just stopped.
I also tried out softball and gymnastics, both at my request, and lost interest quickly. I got into music (viola) in 6th grade and did that through high school.
wonderful olive / 19353 posts
@sweetchic: I did too! I whined and complained every Sunday before I went, during, and after! I hated having to remember "chung yu" or Chinese poems! I didn't have to go to SAT classes or Kumon, but every summer when all the kids were out playing, my parents picked up textbooks for the next grade up and made me "go to school" at home. Blah.
wonderful olive / 19353 posts
@ladyfingers: I talked excessively in school too! I started getting in trouble in Kindergarten where I'd pull my green and yellow cards and always ended up on red before recess so I skipped recess as my punishment. All my report cards have comments about how I'm a great student but I talk too much during class. ha! I think this happened until I was like in 5th grade! Oops.
persimmon / 1453 posts
Ballet. Ugh. As soon as I was old enough to really put up a fight, that stopped!
pomegranate / 3160 posts
Ugh, piano. I HATED piano. The breaking point was when I had a piano recital. The FOUR year old girl who went before me played a more complicated piece than I did. I was humiliated and I never took piano again. No regrets. I can pound out a meeeean rendition of "Heart and Soul."
blogger / persimmon / 1220 posts
They never did. I always asked to participate in certain extracurriculars, and my mom was happy when I would quit one.
grapefruit / 4582 posts
Only piano really. But if I said I wanted to do something, they disk let me quit until it was over
....what is it about the piano?! Lol
GOLD / eggplant / 11517 posts
Wait there was one thing. I had to go to Hebrew school 3x a week and I hated that. Passionately.
pomelo / 5331 posts
@Alivoo01: Me too, it was on every single report card and progress report all the way through 5th grade lol.
grapefruit / 4120 posts
Tennis was the one thing they insisted on and I was terrible! I went to tennis camp several summers in a row and I was always in the second to lowest level LOL. The funny thing is now I sometimes like to play with my husband because we're both terrible and there's no pressure anymore.
coconut / 8430 posts
@Alivoo01: I also hated Chinese school! But like you I am now glad that I was forced to go, although I can hardly read or write anything now.
I pretty much hated all activities that I was signed up for at one time or another and I'm now glad my mom made me stick it out.
hostess / wonderful persimmon / 25556 posts
Nope. I got to try everything I wanted (within reason) and if I hated it, I only had to continue through that season. So, if it was basketball, I had to play out the season. If it was violin, I didn't have to play past 7th grade.
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