What Kind of Parent Are You?

Teach Suzuki Podcast

The Teach Suzuki Podcast recently published its seventh episode, and this one is an interesting discussion for parents particularly. You will want to give this one a listen if you are a parent or a teacher.

In this episode, I talk about how parents run up against their own personal history when they participate in the Suzuki journey. For some parents, this encounter can be life changing for the parents as well as the children and other members of the family. What do I mean?

Everyone is the product of their own personal history. I had parents, and everyone else did too. Some of us had happy childhoods, and others did not. Most of us had mixtures of things, and our histories were also not the same within the family. My sister's memories are very different from my own, and even as an adult with the experience that I have as a teacher, I am unable to completely understand the family dynamics as they relate to my parents or my sibling.

To look at this phenomenon from a Suzuki parent's perspective though, I find that many of my studio parents discover that the difficulties they have during home practices are directly related to the parent's own personal experiences growing up in the parent's own family. This can be a very liberating discovery for most parents. I have witnessed many parents shed tears when they make this discovery and can now recognize and admit openly how their personal upbringing and story plays such a negative impact on the parents' styles of parenting today. For many parents this is a defining moment of beauty.

I use the word "beauty" to describe what happens, because I am gratified inside to share the parents' joy as they realize that their children's futures do not have to be a repeat of the parents' past disappointments. This is joyful because children will now reap the benefits of very informed and thoughtful parenting from this point forward. And joyful too because many parents now free themselves of beliefs that have limited the parents up to this point. I have had many parents rediscover a love for music that the parents had given up hope for when growing up. Many of these parents have begun music lessons alongside their children in order to share this joy of discovery.

So have a listen and see if you find this subject one that you would like to explore in more depth as a parent. Or, if you are a teacher, share this episode with your studio parents and see if they too are finding these same experiences. This episode, I hope, will offer every studio an opportunity to join parents and teachers together for the benefit of the children. Please leave me a comment and let me know what you discover and wish to share. Click below to listen to the podcast episode:

          Podcast Episode 007

Happy Practicing!

----- Paula -----

© 2016 by Paula E. Bird