UGH! My Child Wants To Play The Piano But Not Practice?

Last night was the night that I called it quits. I was exhausted from begging. I was tired of yelling. I was broken-hearted seeing him do other things for hours, except the one thing that he naturally is good at, which is playing the piano.

Out of all my children, my twin soon to be nine year old son Josh, has a natural music ability. He can hear a song and figure out how to play it on the piano. And as soon as he turned six years old, I signed him up for lessons. He practiced and practiced and practiced. His eyes twinkled with each note he pressed. He was in his element. But as time went on, Josh has lost interest in practicing.

Two months ago, I had reached my limit. I was begging and pleading and even yelling at him to practice. I couldn't take another day watching my naturally talented son do everything else, but practice his piano lesson. So I gave him a choice. I told him that if I had to continue yelling and reminding him to practice his lessons every day that I was going to cancel them. Last night was the night.

I spent three hours reminding him to practice and he again, did everything but. And I had reached that mommy point where something needed to change. So when he laid his head down to go to sleep, I shared that I was going to stop his lessons and if he wanted to start them back up, he needed to wait till January, 2014. I also stated that the only way I would start them back up is if he showed interest in practicing over that six month time span and then signed an agreement. Tears fell from his eyes and of course, they broke my heart. But I stayed strong.

About ten minutes later, his older brother came down to talk to me. And again, I stayed firm and strong. My son needs to learn that I'm not going to just throw money and my personal time out the door because he wants to take piano lessons, but isn't willing to practice to get better.

Truthfully, I'm not sure what the right thing to do is. All I know is I'm tired of yelling and begging. And for him to practice right now, I will have to continue doing that. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that maturity will set in and he'll realize that he really does want to play. The one card I have up on him is his twin sister is going to continue taking lessons. Hopefully that will motivate him. Especially because she will be further along than him.