|
|
Ivillage.com |
|
|
|
Mrs. Church, on raising a gifted
child |
Voice of a New Millienum , an interview with
Charlotte Church and her Mum
We
all know that each of our children has gifts that other kids don't,
but sometimes those gifts are more visible to other people. In a way
that's good: it can be hard enough raising kids when they aren't
world-famous. Charlotte Church is world-famous, though she's a 13
year-old Welsh soprano whose voice (and CDs!) are known across the
planet. We spoke to Charlotte and her mom recently about the perks
and prices of fame and raising famous kids. Here's what they had to
say.
Mrs. Church, on raising a gifted child:
iVillage: We wanted to touch on a few things about you as a
parent with a gifted child, and
how you identified her talent at a young age, and realized this was
something beyond a great voice?
Mrs. Church: She always had an interest in singing. We
noticed from an early age. At 3 1/2 she was singing in tune, which
is unusual for kids to do. The whole family sings, it's natural for
her to sing. Around eight we noticed she had developed a vibrato,
which is also unusual at such an early age. She was also very
powerful. I think it was around eight that I realized this wasn't a
normal kid with a good voice. It was just a case of -- she did a number of charity shows with our
local church, she would do that with my sister, Caroline. At 9 1/2,
she asked to go to lessons. My first thought was this just going to
be another fad; she'd been to dancing lessons and all sorts of
things. Within a couple of months the soprano came out from nowhere.
We knew she was gifted, but we never dreamt she'd turn into a
soprano. We've basically just gone from there.
iVillage: When you realized she had a gift, how did you react
within your family? Did you worry about pushing her too hard?
Mrs. Church: None of this was planned. We knew she was
gifted. She said she wanted to sing from the age of ten. I always
figured she'd go to college, study voice, then go to the opera or
West End or whatever -- the normal route.
Then the phone was ringing off the hook. None of this was ever
planned, so there was never a case of pushing Charlotte. There was
the point when we were going over her contacts, and it was,
"let's make her an international star", and I said,
"whoa, let's sit back and talk about this." We sat down as
a family and discussed it for two months, with Charlotte obviously.
We said the choice had to be hers. She said, "look, I want to
take this opportunity. The way I look at it is that I have a great
opportunity, I want to take it, because if I don't, and years later
I try to become a singer and it doesn't happen, I'll always think I
had this great opportunity at 12, 13 and I didn't take it." So
it was always Charlotte's choice. This all just kind of fell in our lap. So we've just always
supported and encouraged her. I think that's all you can do with any
gift, is support and encourage it.
iVillage: Speaking to that point, what advice would you give
to other parents when they see their children excelling and realize
their talents are a little out of the ordinary?
Mrs. Church: Never push. You can't. You can push a child, but
at the end of the day, you can't force anyone to do something
they're not interested in. You can when they're children, but it
will only come back to you in one way or another. You just support
and encourage them, and help them in whatever way you can.
iVillage: How have you tried to keep her life as normal as a
world-famous 13-year-old's life can be?
Mrs. Church: We've managed it. At times it's difficult, but
her character is such that Charlotte -- she's very much her own
person. She hasn't let this change her. We make sure that her
friends are down, that she has a lot of value time with her family
and friends. When she's on the road, she'll phone them. When we can,
we alternate taking her friends with her, during school holidays and
such.
She has said when she comes home sometimes, that she feels that
she's in a completely different world from her friends, but within a
few days she's completely back to normal. It's about making sure you
keep your priorities right -- family, friends, that Charlotte stays
happy and comfortable.
The school has been brilliant as well. I have to mention how
supportive they've been of her. Most of the kids are used to her
being who she is, so when she's there, she's there, when she's not,
she's not. When she's there, no one really makes a fuss. We've found
it pretty okay to balance the two lives.
|
