Will you ban your children from certain sports

And there is a hig difference between an adult who makes their living by music being careful about anything that might stop them playing - and therefore earning- for 6 weeks, and a child not being able to practice for 6 weeks. One might mean losing a house. Then other means a bit of frustration- but having to find something else to do for a few weeks.

Well, mine would choose football- but I see no reason to ask him to choose!

To say what I don't see is not to make things up.

I suspect the sensitive little flower characterization is how they are seen by their doting mothers!

Hmm. The DC who excel at music at DS's school (and they are getting music scholarships to top independent schools) seem, most of the time, to also be prominent in rugby /hockey /cricket teams, so I don't really buy into some of the generalisations about musical children being voiced here. If I told DS he had to choose between piano and rugby he would be heartbroken and I don't honestly know which he would choose.

"Just because it is considered to be "normal" for most children to play rough contact sports , a musical child quite often would not enjoy it all. Being piled up underneath a bunch of muddy boys wearing boots with metal studs is not their cup of tea."

I do find this Fothington Thomas like characterization of musicians deeply depressing. And very unlike most of the musicians I know.

To show I have read it:

Would I ban certain sports? No, I would leave the choice to them.

If they deserve to do something else would I let them? Yes

What will I do to avoid the risk? Don't use the oven! Apart from that not much as they can hurt themselves in the simplest way.

What about PE? I doubt they can be withdrawn.

mathanxiety - you are beginning to make things up a bit. Based on what exactly do you expect to see or not see my plan A, never mind plan B,C or D?

Just because I suggest that little pianists should stay away from rough games especially given that they do not enjoy them much doesnt turn me into whatever you suspect me to be.In fact, I am too busy/lazy/laid back to control my DC's friendships - they just happen. Not necessary on a rugby field.

You seem to be getting very upset by me! The burnt fingers are not my business at all - not my child- he just happens to be one that would have agreed with you BUT his mother still thought he could do housework and she couldn't have got him out of PE and games had she wanted to ban them.
I doubt you can ban them if they are school lessons.

Colleger - thats more down to poor technique .

exoticfruit - are you simply jelous as we are sitting in a comfort of our warm living rooms listening to the piano while you getting soaking wet on the football pitch looking forward to washing your DC muddy socks? Is that the real issue? You are being a sporty mum has to put up with much more hardship . Still, makes us quite similar in other ways - ai? You wouldn't see me dead anywhere near a football match but I am lucky that none of my many DC were ever interested - musical ones or not.
Just because you think you are doing a good job with your lot doesn't automatically makes someone like us bad (well, OP and myself I guess, colleger seems to keep swinging from side to side, but her DC is a wind player by the sound of things , they generally tend to be tougher ).

ExoticFruits you got it easy I had a trumpeter on my hands.

'You seem to have a picture of a great big domineering mother witha stick in her hand overshadowing supressed little child playing scales for hours while secretely wishing he was on a rugby field. It is not quite like that.'

No, and that is not quite the picture I was suggesting either. What I see is much more subtle. I see no stick and no outright coercion. I see a parent with her eyes on the prize and a malleable and talented child going along. I also see the potential for the parent not to recognise the whole child and focus in on the piano-player, and the possibility of a reality shock hitting everyone hard if child and parent are not adequately prepared for the possibility that all that time and effort might still fall short. I don't see Plan B. I don't see even lip service to the idea that the company of peers is important.

Unless you HE I can't see how you can ban it anyway.

You don't want your DC playing rugby is how I read it because he is playing instruments seriously. The DC I was talking about is now an adult and a professional musician. He could have burnt his fingers using the oven as a 12 yr old probably more likely than him having an accident in rugby when he wasn't an enthusiastic player. Just as well as games were compulsory at his school. He would have agreed with you if a it got him out of housework or b out of school games. It did neither.

He was a musician - he didn't want to risk injury- I thought that was the point of OP banning her DC from PE.

Katymac- I'm glad to hear she has other interests too.I feel sorry for gymnastic kids I've known who get to the ripe old age of 18 or19 and dropped from their squads.they've built their whole life round gym, their friends are all at the gym they have compromised their education & have no social life outside gymnastics.

Musicians develop more injuries from RSI than anything else!

My friend's DS would agree with OP-he couldn't wash up because it wasn't good for his hands and he couldn't cook in case he burnt them!

I know it's easy to say "bollocks" when you don't mean you're doubting the poster, just saying that the behaviour they describe is ridiculous, aand get misunderstood - hence I wanted to make that clear.

I certainly am not lying! Te he!

Well hopefully the 14 GCSEs she is doing, plus the instruments she plays and her creative writing will get her through; but yes to be frank it worries me

Plus he long-term goal is to teach (when she is really old, maybe 30 or 32 )