Musical Performance
Am I a bad person? I don't know. Maybe I am. I'll let you decide...not that it changes anything.
I have a musical family. My dad (the coolest dad ever) is a drummer. My little brother Andrew plays piano (and so do I, though not very well). Little sister sings and plays the guitar. Come to think of it, Andrew plays the guitar too. Music was a big deal growing up. Dad always had CD's on his birthday/Christmas/father's day list. We would listen to various things (usually in the car because he insisted my mom wouldn't let him listen in the house) and he'd ask me why I couldn't play like "that". My own kids have taken a liking to various things as well. Ivy plays the violin and the piano. Iris plays the piano, the cello and a snare drum. They come by it honestly--Nick's family is musical too.
Because the girls both play a string instrument through school they have practice both before and during the school day--partly to prepare for the two concerts they have each year. One is in the spring and the other right around Christmas. There isn't just one concert--there are four or five, at three different schools with one being at night. Last night was the performance for this year. Now, I will fuss and complain about the inconvenience and how hard it is to park and the cold and the ridiculousness of how early they have to be there and the uncomfortable chairs and so on and so on, but really it isn't so bad. The songs are nice, familiar and reasonably in tune. So, all of those complaints and gripes are really just what I need to shut up about because this is what it means to have a kid doing stuff outside of school.
But...
For whatever reason, the schools decided to combine the orchestra with the choir. Now, that makes sense on the surface. But consider this: they don't play together. The orchestra plays their songs and then, they sit there while the choir sings totally different songs accompanied (sometimes) by someone playing a piano or even just without accompaniment. So, I sit through my kids' performance and then I sit through other kids' performance. Here's the part where I just might be a horrible person. I just don't care about other people's kids performing. I want to hear my kids and then be gone. I limit my own children's participation in these things partly because it's too much to manage and partly because I just don't want to deal with it. Even if your kid is the greatest acapella singer this side of the Mississippi--I still don't want to sit through it. And please oh please don't add your own bit of parent karaoke to the mix. I don't want to sing and you don't want to hear me sing. So, maybe I am a bad person. Maybe I'm the parent sitting in the back of the cafeteria on concert night buried in a book and only half trying to make sure my other, younger kid isn't annoying anyone (ok, so that's totally me). I've decided not to apologize and embrace my horribleness.
I have a musical family. My dad (the coolest dad ever) is a drummer. My little brother Andrew plays piano (and so do I, though not very well). Little sister sings and plays the guitar. Come to think of it, Andrew plays the guitar too. Music was a big deal growing up. Dad always had CD's on his birthday/Christmas/father's day list. We would listen to various things (usually in the car because he insisted my mom wouldn't let him listen in the house) and he'd ask me why I couldn't play like "that". My own kids have taken a liking to various things as well. Ivy plays the violin and the piano. Iris plays the piano, the cello and a snare drum. They come by it honestly--Nick's family is musical too. 
Because the girls both play a string instrument through school they have practice both before and during the school day--partly to prepare for the two concerts they have each year. One is in the spring and the other right around Christmas. There isn't just one concert--there are four or five, at three different schools with one being at night. Last night was the performance for this year. Now, I will fuss and complain about the inconvenience and how hard it is to park and the cold and the ridiculousness of how early they have to be there and the uncomfortable chairs and so on and so on, but really it isn't so bad. The songs are nice, familiar and reasonably in tune. So, all of those complaints and gripes are really just what I need to shut up about because this is what it means to have a kid doing stuff outside of school. But...
For whatever reason, the schools decided to combine the orchestra with the choir. Now, that makes sense on the surface. But consider this: they don't play together. The orchestra plays their songs and then, they sit there while the choir sings totally different songs accompanied (sometimes) by someone playing a piano or even just without accompaniment. So, I sit through my kids' performance and then I sit through other kids' performance. Here's the part where I just might be a horrible person. I just don't care about other people's kids performing. I want to hear my kids and then be gone. I limit my own children's participation in these things partly because it's too much to manage and partly because I just don't want to deal with it. Even if your kid is the greatest acapella singer this side of the Mississippi--I still don't want to sit through it. And please oh please don't add your own bit of parent karaoke to the mix. I don't want to sing and you don't want to hear me sing. So, maybe I am a bad person. Maybe I'm the parent sitting in the back of the cafeteria on concert night buried in a book and only half trying to make sure my other, younger kid isn't annoying anyone (ok, so that's totally me). I've decided not to apologize and embrace my horribleness.
Comments