I Spied on My Son and Do Not Regret It

Ever since my son was born he has loved music, both singing and playing. Early on I noticed that he easily picked up the tune to songs on the radio and remembered all the words better than I did.

I think it's important to encourage children to develop their musical interests. There is even research that suggests piano and voice lessons may young kids an intellectual edge over their peers.

His first musical instrument was a banjo we found at Goodwill that had no strings on it, and he used a stick to "play" it. He was barely walking at the time but loved his "nano", as he called it.

When he entered the first grade, we got him a real "big boy" guitar, complete with strings this time. It was a small version because he was so young, but he loved it even more than his "nano" and it was the first thing he grabbed when he got in from school. He eventually taught himself how to play and hasn't stopped since then. He actually taught himself how to play the piano and guitar as well.

We never had the money to send any of the kids for formal lessons, but luckily they all inherited the talent to either play an instrument, sing, or write lyrics and musical scores. They're all grown now and all still pursue music as a hobby, and one even turned his musical ability into a career as an audio engineer.

I'm sure you're wondering what all of this has to do with me spying on my son. Well, when he was in the 6^th grade he appeared in his first talent show at school. He was going to sing a song and play the guitar with this band. This was the first of many bands for him, as any aspiring musician can probably relate to!

Anyway, we were all very excited about getting to see the talent show and were sitting at the dinner table one night talking about it. He very quietly stood up and said that if anyone showed up at the show he would not participate. I didn't take him seriously and continued to make plans to go, along with the rest of the family.