Wonderful post @artemislives. We too are in the same boat in same age ranges having the same conversations. Your post comes with much appreciation from me as a mom...winging it! It is a different world and I am facing the same deep questions. Hoping that 'following the child' approach will ultimately result in my children's adult lives being fulfilling and self-sustaining for them. We actually do piano and violin ;) My oldest son actually came to me at age 8 and said, "I'd like to learn violin, can you set that up for me?" LOL
In any case, my husband and I have been discussing a Steem acct for our oldest - I wasn't completely sure about it but after reading your post, you bring up some very valid points worth considering. Now, he hasn't come to me and said, "Can you set Steem up for me" yet but maybe he would like to join your daughter in a shared teen experience with Steem/Discord. He also loves our kitty Mina so they can start a little cat meme tribe. I'm going to bring this up to him today and see where the conversation leads. Thank you for your post, very helpful. And will definitely support your daughter's new adventure.
The online mama-love is bringing tears to my eyes!! Thank you. Yes, it would be great if Ploi could have some other young people to learn from and engage with. And yes, I wing it, most all the time. :) I soooo wanted my daughter to study piano and violin (I have a degree in classical music majoring in piano) but not her thing, yet. But hey, the great Arthur Rubenstein had his first piano lesson in his 40s, so there is no rush. :) Gratitude for the wonderful, encouraging comment, for the resteem and for supporting my daughter. :)
How wonderful that you majored in classical piano. I loved classical piano as a child - was an odd-ball child in that respect. My violin child also loves classical and is preparing for his La Follia piece for May (quite a story here because he had 3 major surgeries on his right arm and it is a miracle that he is even playing violin...he lived in a cast from his wrist to his shoulder for 3 years and the second it came off, he asked me to set him up with violin :) ). Interesting how life lays itself out and we either take one path or another. I certainly wouldn't force the issue with Ploi and music. She may be interested later. I kind of forced it with my younger child (he plays piano, more of a jazz and art/free spirit)...'just try it, grab a taste of it and then if you don't like it, we'll try something new. He wanted to try cello 6 months ago and that fizzled after the first lesson ;) And then we've done djembe drumming. Everybody's different....as long as a person has a way to 'express themselves' in some artistic way, it doesn't matter what they choose. I've seen the wildest artistic expressions that I would have never thought of - I even consider math an artistic expression in a lot of ways. It's all good. Ploi's Steem page will be her artistic expression and who knows where that will lead her and what it will teach her about herself :)
You're soooo right about expression being the priority and the medium being simply a detail. Your children are lucky to have such a balanced mom!! Thank you for steadying my wobble and for the lovely inputs.
You're doing great. And thank you. I wobble quite a bit, too - this is an 'interesting' age LOL