Overloading a child's development...

[rubiksolved]

When I eventually have a kid... I want to kinda... give him everything possible to give him the best possible future (as we all do of course..)


but i was thinking along the lines of giving him/her
-piano tutor
-string instrument of choice tutor
-be fluent in 4-5 different languages
-and yeah... things of that nature...

i know its not good overloading/overworking a child.. but i dont know... where would u say you should draw the line?

 

[AmyBelle]

For all you know your future child could have absolutely no musical ability and completely despise piano and string instrument lessons.

Your child could struggle with english, alot of kids do, so being fluent in 4-5 different languages wouldnt be an option then.

Your future child could be sports-obsessed. Or love science, or have a passion for all things artistic.

Personally, I dont force my daughter into any of these things, if she comes up to me one day and says "Mum I want to learn the piano" then we will look into it, im not going to force her to play because I have this idea of a perfect kid in my head, she may have no interest in it. The only thing I introduced was swimming lessons, because I believe that to be something important to learn and may get her out of strife some day.

Wait until you have a child, there are more important things then having a multi-lingual multi-instrumentalist, you dont even know their strengths and weaknesses yet.

 

[Mindy]

I agree with AmyBelle. You are unknowingly setting your child up for failure before he/she is even conceived! Of course you want the best for your future children, but there is so much more to raising a child that would come before all that stuff. Teaching a child to love him/herself and to care for people and our world is one of the most important things you can give your child. And it's one of the hardest jobs in the world. And believe me if your child has an affinity for any of those things, they will make it happen themselves, not by being forced into it.

Basically what I'm trying to say is YOU might be the one who is overloaded, trying to raise a good human being. Teaching right from wrong. Potty training. Teaching your child numbers and letters and colors and shapes. A million things that are so much more important to your child being a productive member of society than whether they can speak more than one language or play an instrument. (And this is coming from someone who plays the guitar, the drums, speaks 3 languages and was never forced into any of it by my parents)

 

[fallon]

yep...I agree with the others. You need to meet your child before you'll ever know what they're capable of. It's great to have dreams for them and you should always do you best to help them be the best they can but your dreams and the dreams of that child don't always match up

 

[eleventy1!!]

I think it's wonderful to plan on introducing your child to music and languages but you shouldn't expect that the child will be exceptional in these pursuits. I also don't think that you will risk overloading if the child is only involved in one or two of these activities at any one time. Just read your child's cues. It's amazing how much of the child's personality and preferences are obvious from an early age. My children, who are the same gender and fairly close in age, are very different from each other and already show signs of having different long-suits from one another - and from their dad and me. There are so many things I could not have predicted.

 

[NinJaBob]

I say that you should introduce as much positive education as he or she can handle as long as there's still time for being a kid and having fun. I think it's important that the child be well rounded. Like the others have said that needs to be determined by the individual child's personality.