"I want my child to have the advantages I never had when I was a kid." When it comes to cliches uttered by doting parents, that's one of the all-time classics. I never thought I'd find myself saying it, but as I keep finding out, parenthood is full of such ironic twists. In my case, the "advantage" in question is learning to play the piano.
When I was a kid, my parents couldn't afford to buy one. My two brothers and I couldn't have cared less, but our mother (cue violins) would occasionally wistfully recall when she used to play.
In recent years, however, I've been increasingly jealous of those of my friends who can tickle the ivories and produce a tune. As Groucho Marx once observed, nothing livens up a party more than someone bashing out popular favorites on the old 88s.