“Big commitment” activity: thoughts?

[HornungTheHelpful]

Hi, I have three children, aged 7, 5 and 3. 7 year old has been asked to try out for a very time-intensive activity (choir): 3 mornings a week before school, 2 afternoons after school, half a day at the weekend. Of course they may not get selected, but there is a good chance they will. I have very mixed feelings.

7yo is keen to try out, but I am concerned that they don’t understand the commitment. It will also hamstring the whole family, particularly as my partner works away a lot so I will be dragging 3 and 5 along with me.

Would appreciate thoughts of any with experience of this. I’ve tried leaving off thinking about it until we know if he will be accepted but I can’t!

Well done to him! It's a great thing to do. Hope it goes well.

Congratulations to your son, I hope everything goes well

Thanks all. He seems really happy about it. I am slightly panicking about the logistics, but it will just have to be done

When they are older they get themselves about of course. We did a “lift share” (although it was actually by tube and bus) with other probationer families, the parents were all on a choir WhatsApp which helps. Hopefully it will be fine! Is your DS excited?

He is. If he overall likes it it will be great for him but not sure he’ll like the intensity. We’ll see

I hope it goes really well for you all - choirs are rather a family commitment, I agree. One of my daughter's friends had two younger sisters who both followed her into their choir. I remember my son (who as a summer birthday was only 6 when he auditioned, albeit his was a non-boarding choirschool which helped) - partway into his first year as a full chorister when the extent of the commitment finally dawned, asking me "why did I want to be a chorister?". But he always seemed to enjoy it and has kept singing in choirs ever since.

Congratulations and good luck! We did it with three ... and they all say it was utterly worthwhile and still with them now (in their 40s).

Thanks. We’re about a month in and he is loving it. I’m finding the logistics quite hard 🤣

I was wondering about him! I’m glad he is enjoying it and I hope the logistics get a bit easier once you know the other choir parents a bit. Thanks for updating.