Here’s a short story about my son and piano practice and parental rage.
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Thank god someone else said it. I DON’T always like my kids. I always love them, but I don’t always like them. And sometimes they bore me to tears. Why are parents so afraid of the weird complexity of feeling that comes with parenting?
I think parenting has become more self conscious than it used to be? My sister said it best in that Big Job interview…that our parents never worried much about whether we liked THEM. And I’m sure they didn’t worry about the days they didn’t like us. So yes…parenting is definitely the most complex thing I’ve ever done, but I’m probably also WAY more self conscious about it than I should be.
Erica, and Henry, thank you. After hearing so many words and shows over today’s “air waves,” I always feel a little speechless, like I have so much to say and yet nothing can be said. Your stories so often reach me where I am, or where I’ve been. Other times, I suspect they might be showing me somewhere else I could go someday. Your shows open up worlds–gently, and honestly, and slowly–three adverbs our interactions are sorely in need of these days.
Anyway, I’ve been the kid on the instrument. I’ve been the mom. The bad one and the good one. I’ve been inside that hug. Hmmmm…. Maybe someday I’ll be the cow. I’ll have to go chew on that for a bit. Thanks, Erica, again, for sharing.
Wow, Erica. You nailed it again. Raw, fearless, honesty and real insight to human nature embedded in compelling story. You have a gift, thanks for sharing!
Piano practice: Simply beautiful; I loved my kids, I suffered through their piano practices, and I certainly did not
always LIKE them. How wonderful that you have your Charlie Anne, that quiet, common sense being that promises
that you and Henry WILL get through this. I wish I’d had a barn and a cow when I was at your stage of life!
Refreshingly true! Love it!
Lovely piece! Found Rumblestrip via the Hewitts, enjoyed the Geoff Hewitt interview very much. I remember helping my now 6 year-old son to understand ‘I may not always like you, but I will always love you, and you will feel the same way about me, too’. And I have those days too, when I know what I should be saying but just carry on saying exactly the opposite, almost like my alter-ego wants to get me into trouble! Give Charlie Anne a scratch on the withers from me 🙂
Thank you for this beautiful piece. I’m with Mary — been the kid, am the Mom. I’m even a current piano student who both doesn’t practice enough even as I’m trying to get my kids into good habits. The subtlety, of course, is having suffered through piano lessons as a child, I am the adult who still plays, and enjoys playing, and CAN play — even when I don’t practice ever day. I want the same for them.
My piano teacher just told me he and his wife are expecting, so I forwarded this piece in celebration of piano lessons, and parenting, and being a Vermonter.