[Gayle]

I started to watch it but gave up when the young girl herself, seemed to be proud of being dumb.

I would say though that there is a very fine line between encouraging your children and pushing them and sometimes children need a little bit more than encouragement, they need a real push.

It is obvious that there are some careers where the children need to be starting really early if they stand any chance of being the best - ballet, football, gymnastics etc. Some children have the talent but don't push themselves but in later years would actually appreciate being pushed a bit by their parents. For instance, so far, my two have had a go at (daughter) ballet, gym, horseriding and now drama and karate, (son) football and now drama and karate.

My daughter did ballet for about a year when she was four - who knows how good she would be now after another four years but she gave it up. I could have kept dragging her down there but I accepted it when she said she didn't want to go.

Already Maddie is miffed that I didn't push her more with ballet but she won't go back because she'd be too old to be in the starter classes.

I guess my point is that most children are lazy to a degree and every activity requires the commitment of the parent to keep encouraging them to get out of bed and go and do it. It's knowing that limit I suppose and there are obviously some parents who cross the line.