Teach My Child – Or Not?

I wrote the post below almost ten years ago, and it is interesting to look back at it, as my daughter is now 19 years old.

She is still dancing and loving it. Over the years she has had lots of different teachers to inspire her. I taught her modern, acrobatics and hip hop, but she learned tap, Spanish and ballet from three other teachers.

She did go through a stage when she was about 13 when she didn’t want to dance anymore as she wanted to play hockey with her friends. So I let her go and a year later she was back at dancing more focused than ever.

At the moment she is having a gap year, and has been lucky enough to be hired as dancer and choreographer for various shoes around the city, so she hasn’t had time to be bored. Next year she plans on getting her teachers qualifications.

So this was my article almost ten years ago……

Should I teach my child or not? Whether it be school, karate, ballet or swimming and as a ballet teacher with a daughter, this question has often entered my mind.

Luckily my good friend teaches with me, so I send my daughter to her for the ballet, and I teach her the Modern and Hip Hop. I only teach her the ballet on occasion when my friend has to go away to examine.

I really have to make sure I don’t push her any harder than I do the rest of the class, and sometimes it is tempting, as she is sometimes a little lazy.

I would just hate to become one of those pushy mother teachers, who insists on perfection from her daughter. I have enough of those types of mothers in the studio as it is, and don’t want to be labeled one myself. I want my daughter to choose for herself what she wants to do, whether it be ballet, music or sport. At the moment, she still loves her dance and doesn’t play too much sport, as she would rather not miss dance classes.

Here are some of the teach my child pro’s and cons that I have found over the years.

Should I Teach My Child?

Teach My Child Pro’s

• You can monitor their progress better.
• It is something you share an interest in and do together.
• You know your child better than anyone else, and can see her faults and correct them with ease.
• Your child normally has the same body limitations as you do, which lets you teach her from your own experiences.
• You can spend extra time discussing her progress after hours with her and have something in common to talk about.

Teach My Child Con’s

• Your child sometimes does not listen to you as well as she would somebody else.
• She could back chat you or correct you in class in front of her peers.
• She probably will not enjoy correction from you in front of her peers.
• She may not push herself as hard as she would for another person.
• She may try and show off or play up in front of her friends.

History shows that there has in the past been extremely successful parent and daughter scenarios. Take for instance Marie Taglioni, who was known to suffer tremendously under the strict training of her father, but he made a world famous ballerina out of her. I don’t know if many teenagers today would put up with what Marie had to put up with from her Dad.

I also know a lot of teachers who have successfully trained their children, and some of them have gone on to be great dancers or even great teachers. It may be in the genes, or it may be that the parent pushes the child a little harder, in order to achieve the same successes that she had.

There shouldn’t be a problem with teaching your own child, although I prefer not too. The problem may come in later as the child gets older. He or she may express a wish to go to another teacher, or may feel victimized by you in class, or not like being corrected in front of his or her peers. In this case, it may be best to look at the situation from his or her point of view and try to be objective.

Please leave your thoughts on this topic of whether to teach my child or not below.