These are my tiny dancers. I think this may have been the one and only year they danced (different years). I don't know why one looks like she's dancing "Swan Lake" and the other one looks like she's dancing at Hooters. And I don't remember if dance lessons were their ideas or mine.
And therein lies one of the dilemmas of parenthood. Exactly what do you involve your child in? And exactly what do you force your child to participate in? And exactly how long do you force your child to participate in an activity that he or she may not want to be a participant? My daughters probably have strong opinions on these questions, but I think they're saving them for Dr. Phil.
Sam played baseball and basketball, all on his own. He also took piano lessons for a few years until we moved cities (he might have taken longer had I bothered to find another teacher, but by that time I had a lot going on and he didn't appear to be a piano prodigy, so I focused my attention elsewhere).
When Maribeth was in kindergarten, she told me she wanted to play soccer. Which was great, except that (a) I knew nothing about soccer, and (b) I didn't even know if girls played soccer. But I found the sign-up place (and asked the people if girls played soccer and they said yes) and signed her up. She was happy. She was not so happy when we signed her up for softball. She hated it even though she was good at it. We finally let her quit when she nearly passed out from the catcher's outfit and the heat. Pretty much after that, we let her decide what she wanted to do.
By the time Molly came along, we just let her decide. It was a lot easier on everyone. The worst part about dance was getting the picture above. All my children learned to play an instrument in the band, but only Molly kept her flute (and may still be able to play "Mary Had A Little Lamb.")
Anyhow, I never did learn if I made the right decisions about what to put them in and/or push them in (I'll let you know when that Dr. Phil episode airs). I'm just glad those days are over - and that two of them have their own children to consider these decisions for!
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Today is a gift because: taking Lindley to school and picking her up; Sam Southwest saga
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