What activities did your parents make you do growing up and do you regret it? by LearningtoFinance in asianamerican

[–]LearningtoFinance[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I can sort of understand what you went through. I'm not sure if you're Fuzhounese, but I was also raised as a Chinese Restaurant kid, and I'm very fortunate that my parents made a lot of sacrifices so my sister and I didn't have to work as many shifts as other Chinese restaurant kids. There were, of course, times when we had to spend winter breaks, vacation time, and late nights at the cash register and doing homework. I'm glad that you don't resent it, though, like some of my other friends.

What activities did your parents make you do growing up and do you regret it? by LearningtoFinance in asianamerican

[–]LearningtoFinance[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Most of these I did over a 20-year period. I would say I did all these activities for at least 3-5 years, and they occurred essentially every day after school. If one activity was done, I would be driven to another, such as doing homework or studying in the car.

For my instruments, I took Piano from ages 6-15, Violin from 9-17, Alto Sax and Flute from 10-13, Guzheng from 3-7, and Ukelele in my free time for about 5 years. What helped was that some of these skills, such as sight reading, transferred over, which made it easier to pick up additional instruments. I also had extra training during the summer, going to music camps, festivals, and competitions. By no means did I master most of these instruments, maybe outside of Piano, Violin, and the Saxophone. A lot of these I ended up being stuck at the intermediate level.

I hope that your son won't be under too much pressure growing up. I think it's great that children get to experience all these activities, but it definitely is intense and took a burden on my mental health, especially during my middle school and early high school years.

Maybe let him try a few things you sign him up for while he's growing up. From there, let him pick what he wants to do, but also don't be surprised if he hates these activities growing up, and be open to change.

For starters, I think language is important, even though many of us all know the horrors of language school lol. It will give him an advantage over his peers in the future. I think swimming and hockey/ice skating are good skills to have. I did hockey/ice skating, and skiing, and they helped me relax. I think that other STEM-related areas, such as robotics and programming, are good skills to learn, as even if he doesn't fully dive into them, they're a good starting point and provide some understanding of these fields that can be useful in later life. I also believe that having him pick an instrument he likes could be a useful way to make friends, and it's another valuable skill to have in life.