Friday 25 May 2012

Parental pressures and extra activities

I have found out that the musical education is mostly a private enterprise in England. Number One Son’s nursery is planning to start musical half-an-hour playing and dancing sessions on one day a week. This will be against extra payment and the children who are not taking part will be playing in another room. While I do understand that nurseries have to rise more revenue in this economic climate, the extra expense will present an extra dilemma for us, the parents.

I am not the only one who has asked another parent if their child is going to take part. Since Number One Son is developing at his own leisure, he wondered off during the taster session. He has never been interested in group singing sessions in any play group and he has only recently begun to have enough concentration for crafts. He does boogey to certain music on TV and this physical part and any dancing with his mates would appeal to him.

I am not sure Number One Son is ready for more formal musical learning experience – especially if he will wonder off and play on his own during the set time. I have also found that the set price is a sum I have been paying for 45 minutes or one hour with the council activities so it seems pricey. I think the other parents are feeling the same, too, since one parent asked me on Friday if Number One Son is going to attend.

I had to be honest and say that I will ask the following week if many of his friends will be attending. I do not want to leave him playing alone and being separated from his mates – even if they are in an age when they are more playing in the same room than playing together. However, there is no use paying if Number One Son was one of the few attending. His attention span is not enough for such an experience and if he wanders off the money will be spent for nothing. Archaeologist Husband wants Number One Son to learn an instrument and have musical education but it makes sense to wait until he definitely wants to do it himself and can express it unmistakably.

We parents have the pressure to do the best for our children and give them the best changes in the world. In the real world not all of us are wealthy and we have to consider how to use our money. When we are facing the situations like the one explained above, we are drawn by the financial realities and the need to consider how we spend our monies in the harsh economic climate on one hand and the wish to give our children fun, learning experiences and enjoyment.

How do we manage to solve this? If only a few attend, then the answer is easy – we will wait for a later time when Number One Son is clearly willing to take part in extra activities. If most of his friends take part, we probably have to pay the extra cost. Luckily, the other parents chose for me. The nursery may not be able to go ahead with the sessions, since the interest just was not there. I was not the only one hesitating

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