One moment please! Control those siblings...

This shoe is cute, younger annoying siblings are not...

So, off to piano lessons the Only Child and I went - piano books in tow, and expectations of what a 'good effort' was, were clearly set. Good effort is rewarded you see, so we need some parameters of judgement. You don't have to be perfect, but you do need to try your best (as Mummy and Daddy do too).

The Only Child's piano lessons are done with five other children. We had the option of private or group lessons, and we chose group lessons as I like the Only Child to build friendships, and comradeship with like-minded children. The lessons are always full of dance and music - with a little bit of theory tucked in inconspicuously. Recently however, the lessons have been full of interruption and frustration...

The Music School has a policy that each child must be accompanied by a parent throughout the whole lesson - for encouragement, help, and guidance. That's fine. However, one lovely child at the lesson often has her two year old brother accompany her as well. The two year old has a great time banging, clanging, crying, screaming, running, throwing, and any other action words you associate with a two year old. 

One on one time is so important!

"Excuse me, I'm going to have to ask you to control him. He can't keep on interrupting the lesson", said our exasperated piano teacher. The Teacher illustrated her frustration by physically taking the two year old's hands off the instruments and moving him in the direction of his Mother (who was sitting very quietly, on the other side of the room). The Mother said, nor did, anything - her face expressionless. Perhaps she was embarrassed? Perhaps she was annoyed with the Teacher, or perhaps she genuinely thought her two year old was cute, and the Teacher was having a bad day?

My Only Child is always intrigued by her peer's younger siblings. I watched as my Only Child started to look upon the two year old as not so much a 'cutie' anymore, and more an annoyance. And I must admit, it's times like this when I am very happy that I have one child. If this was the interruption in public, I can only imagine what it must be like at home. Perhaps it's just me, but I would find it really difficult to concentrate on my daughter's homework, or coloring in, with another little cherub party crashing the 'moment'...

In fact, I think the only way that the raucous two year old's Mother could focus on her piano playing daughter, was to ignore her two year old. And she did this quite defiantly (a few parents gave their disapproving looks) and deliberately. While her daughter was attempting a C Major ditty, the Mother in question was muffling her two year old's screams - and holding him back from the keyboard; Keeping her eyes focused on her daughter's finger work. I thought this was admiral, but also a lot of work. 

At the end of the lesson, our passive aggressive piano Teacher politely suggested to the wild child's Mother, "Maybe next time you can get someone to look after him?". The Mother's response: a forced smile, and the ominous words, "We will see you next week". 

The experience made me feel happy about the uninterrupted one-on-one attention that my daughter receives. It also gave me an insight to the effort some multi-child parents make when it comes to 'quality time'. While the situation seemed like the worst possible learning environment from my view, it was this Mother's quality time with her children. And no one was going to take that away from her.