what makes a kid happy?

i was sharing with a mother if she had noticed that her daughter is smiling less nowadays...and seems to be burdened with sth in the heart. she said,"no. my girl is very articulate. she will talk and let me know what's going on.." i related some recent events of my observation and thought it might be good for her to be aware of her daughter's mood...maybe, it's mood swing. then, she casually told me that the girl has a precious diary whom she will write to almost daily which is also under locks....and one day, an accidntal peep into the contents surprised her as the young child wrote about sth very sensitive, dealing with love affairs. apparently, someone has told her that he likes her and she's probably confused.....she went into depth about hw she felt and it was mostly words of disgust, instead of uplifting. the irony part was the mom couldn't even check with her on the matter coz' it was supposed to be a hush-hush diary affair. then, the brother commented that everywhere the sister goes, she will bring the diary with her...even during recess in school, she will walk around with the diary. then, the mother recollected that the young girl recently expressed her dislike for learning piano....not that she couldn't do it, but she just did'nt enjoy playing although she has a great piano teacher! from mom's point of view, it's great for a girl to grow up with music, dance and art interest, particularly when the well-to-do grandparents also grew up with such exposures. this lil girl was also trained to dance at young age, but eventually dropped off having shown no interest. she asked," shouldnt we teach our kids about perseverance rather than take everything into their own hands of whims and fancy?" for all u knw, the dislike could be a passing phase too! haha, that's a hard question to answer. but, in singapore, u drop out of sth, u can easily pick up another interest. take claire, for instance, out of violin and into hip hop....and re-picking her art interest in p4 after quitting in p1. so, to me, we hv to learn to balance the needs of learning of our kids. ultimately, it's really how long the passion can last them? if it's just learning for few grades in piano, then it will be for leisure playing. if it's a case of wanting to teach, then it's a long long journey....check joy out, haha!