The Bartlett Adventure: Dreams. . .

I recently read Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua. After I finished the book I started to evaluate the idea of dreams, dreams for myself, dreams for my children, and dreams of the future. When I had children I knew I would support their dreams and do everything that I could to help them to come true. The book made me ask the question (to me) is my dreams big enough for them? Should I be doing more to help them succeed in life? In the book Amy Chua has her children practice piano up to five hours a day, plus learning Mandarin, and doing extra work to stay ahead of their peers at school. I cannot afford to give the boys private lessons in various things, this is the down fall of staying home with the kids there is never extra money. Seriously I could push Damian to do more work to at home we could get through the curriculum faster, should he be practicing piano more than thirty minutes a day? Should I want him to be the best at piano and aim to get him to a stage instead of thinking of it as a beautiful hobby? I wanted the kids to have a teacher outside of me that they could impress with their practicing. Now I have added to my guilt pile because I needed more guilt.

James is still working on learning the alphabet and I am sure that I should be pushing him more. Damian could read when he was four. Then they are different kids and I am a different mother than I was with Damian. Should we push our children to excel? How do you choose what they are going to excel in? This parenting gig is stressful!

In retrospect I knew when I was Damian's age what I wanted to do when I grew up. I wanted to write for a living. I knew it then and I know it now. Sometimes when I see successful people who are younger than I am I struggle with myself (the inner demons only I can hear mocking me). I am working on an English Degree which allows me to read things I haven't read, and more importantly it allows me to write and improve. I gain confidence in myself and I know one very important thing about life: It Is Never Too Late. People start late all the time the important thing is that we start. My major question is "Are my dreams big enough?" My answer as all ways is, "I do not know?"

How about some songs about big dreams