Enrichments - Are they too much?

Time really flies when you are maintaining a blog.

It's been 6 days since my last post. I'd meant to upload a pic of the piano which had arrived last Saturday, but I haven't got round to doing it because I've been busy - I received the piano on Saturday late morning, went out in the afternoon till 11pm for the school's anniversary dinner; went to church and my cousin's wedding on Sunday and only came home at 12.40am; went to piano tutor's place for piano lesson and visited the doc for Coco's asthmatic cough on Monday; and today, I'm back in school for some meeting that never seems to be taking place. And that's why I'm here updating my blog.

It's only been a few days since the piano arrived, but I'm beginning to feel the tension - the monthly instalments I'm going to pay to my sister for the next five months, the need to hound after Coco to do her theory homework and practise on the piano. I'm really worried because she doesn't seem to be very enthusiastic in playing the piano. Perhaps it's the starting stage and she hasn't learnt any song yet. It probably seems boring and monotonous to her that she needs to do the finger drills and trying to familiarise herself with the notes.

I was already asking her which one she would like to give up in the event she needs to give one up: piano or ballet. I foresee that she will not be able to cope with the demands of both, on top of swimming which is supposed to be good for her health, as well as her academics. However, I really would like her to do well in all these, for personal developments.

Deep within my heart, I know that her passion is painting. However, being someone who used to like painting, I refuse to let her learn painting from any tom, dick and harry. The only qualified art school, it seems to me, is NAFA. I find the distance quite out of the way though. But William reminded me that her piano lesson takes place at the other end of the island, which is a huge irony that I'm thinking of not letting her go for the art lesson over proximity reasons.

On her part, Coco would like to join the robotics club in her school. I don't want her to be overloaded with all the enrichment activities that she doesn't even have time for her studies. That would be wrong prioritisation.

I'm worried that I'm imposing my own wish on little Coco. It's always been my wish that my daughter plays piano: my daughter MUST play piano.

But now, as a mother, I want to, and I need to, respect my daughter's wish. The piano is bought, but her wish is more important than mine.