Are the kids remotely interested in programming, and does it make sense to try teaching them if they show no interest? As a child, I remember pushed towards taking piano lessons and hating every second of it.
Are the kids remotely interested in programming, and does it make sense to try teaching them if they show no interest? As a child, I remember pushed towards taking piano lessons and hating every second of it.
And now as a parent with kids, I wish I got a chance to take piano lesson (or any musical instrument) when young. I make kids do things that I know I didn't enjoy when young, like studying, being responsible, facing consequences. And just like me, it's a decade(s) long process.
Obviously there should be reasonable limit on how much you will push your kids to do things they don't want to do. But I believe it's every parent's responsibility to help/push kids experience/learn new things when young. Even if they don't enjoy it (if so, it should not be pushed too hard or for long), it's a success because everyone involved gets to know what the kids enjoy or hate.
I'm not suggesting scheduling every waking hour of a child for an organized activity/study. But more/various activities for young kids are generally a good thing imho.
But, I think programming is a creativity tool, and as such kids can use it for creation. Sadly our tools adds a lot of complexity and doesn't help to make this creativity flow easily. Many kids will be frustrated by the number of details they should learn to move a simple object on the screen. This is why I recommended Scratch Jr. and Alice 3D, while not perfect you can do some advanced stuff with simple programming. If kids are not frustrated or annoyed by the tools they will engage in creative projects in art and/or science because this tool enables incredible new ways of expression.
"Would you like to go to @codeclub"
"Yes!"
"Ask HN: How should I teach code to kids?"
Getting kids an opportunity to become interested in @codeclub is a related, but separate question.
No one knows the details of your experiences and psyche, I'm not saying that you should continue your piano lessons.
However, parents are primarily responsible from guarding children from their own poor choices among other things. I wish I didn't stop the guitar lessons when I was a child although my mind was primarily on girls, consoles and basketball.