Magnific

Too often, adults forget what it was like being twelve. Everything felt more nerve-wracking, now imagine performing something you learned for an audience of adults, like in this case.

A woman’s shy niece is still learning the piano, but still decided to give her grandmother a gift by playing a two-minute piece. For someone so shy, that was super brave. But something happened.

Some people at the family dinner missed it and wanted her to play again. She didn’t want to.

She had already quietly admitted she was nervous and only wanted to perform once. Hoping to ease her anxiety, her aunt reassured her that one performance would be enough.

Keep reading for the full story and see what happened.

AITA for not letting my family make my niece play piano a second time?

My niece (12) recently started taking piano leassons. She’s very shy and doesn’t like it when everyone is watching her.

At a family dinner at my mom’s house, she sat next to me and quietly said that she’d promised grandma she’d play a song, but she was scared.

I told her she could play just once and wouldn’t have to do it again.

After dinner, she sat down at the piano in the living room and played.

It wasn’t perfect, she lost her pace a couple of times, but she finished successfully.

Grandma almost cried and she said it was the best gift she had received that day.

It was perfect, but people wanted more.

The problem was that several adults were in the kitchen at that moment.

Someone was bringing out the cake, someone was helping with the plates and someone was just chatting. When they came back and realized they’d missed it, they asked to play it again.

My niece immediately tensed up. She quietly said she’d already played it.

Then her mom asked her to play once again.

She interfered.

I understand that she was proud of her daughter and didn’t mean any harm. But then someone added that she shouldn’t be dramatic, because it’s only two minutes.

I felt that I had to intervene and highlighted that said she said no, already played and it was on them that they missed though they heard some music coming from the living room.

All got quiet and my sister said I should mind my own business. I replied that I wasn’t trying to be her mom, she’d just already given her answer.

Things got awkward.

While this argument happened, my niece got up and went to help her grandmother with the plates.

Later my sister said that I had made her look like a bad mother and taught her daughter to be rude to the family when they were trying to support her.

I’m not sure now if I really was right here, but why small gift for grandma was turned into a group performance for adults who had missed it out by themselves.

AITA?

I think it’s nice to have at least one person tell her it’s okay if she doesn’t want to play to an audience as a beginner.

What did Reddit think?

I agree.

Yikes.

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Something to consider.

No is no.

Another reader chimes in.

This is a really good point.

It was already challenging enough and brave of her to play for her grandmother, and her aunt had the sensibility to notice that.

Then what began as a personal gift to her grandmother soon turned into a disagreement over whether she should perform again for relatives who had missed it.

Several family members had been busy in the kitchen during the performance, and once they realized what had happened, they asked her niece to play the song she is learning again.

But she was visibly uncomfortable and quietly explained that she had already played it.

Rather than accepting her answer, a few adults continued encouraging her, including her mom.

Her aunt is a cool aunt.

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Author

Mila Cardozo