Be open to everything and closed to nothing

I made an interesting observation today when I met with my daughter Savannah's singing teacher for the first time. She was a lovely lady and seemed genuinely pleased with how well my daughter was doing with her lessons. She also pointed out to me that Savannah was very talented and could easily become a very good opera singer. To my daughter that was not a compliment and I could see her wrinkle her nose in disgust at the thought. On the other hand I know that opera singers have amazing voices and train like athletes. They can sing without the need of synthesizers or any other kind of gadgets to make them sound like they are really talented. To have her say that my daughter could do well in this genre of music to me was the ultimate compliment. I tried to explain that to my daughter, but being a teenager and very set in her ways and her likes in music, she just didn't get it.

I think it is so important for parents to introduce a wide variety of music and arts to their children. Aquaint your children with Mozart as well as the Beatles, show them all kinds of art from Monet to Picasso, they will learn an appreciation for art for the sake of art and not because it is the in thing at the time.

Happy Parenting,

Monicka