entertain me

I wonder how many hours families collectively spend watching children's performances in the months of December and May. I'm afraid the shows bring out the Scrooge in me (I realize I kvetched in my last entry too--am I a really grumpy person?).

Crazy, I suppose, to complain, since I was an eager performer growing up and encourage my kids to do more extra-curricular activities than they choose to do. Taken individually I don't mind an orchestra concert, school play, or dance recital. My plea here is for all you teachers to please limit performances to an hour. Pretty, pretty please. Not 90 minutes, certainly not 2 hours. Especially not on a school night. And dress rehearsals need to be scheduled on a separate day.

Many teachers abide by these rules, and I thank them for it. Really I should be thanking all the dedicated teachers who teach my children and plan events to share students' talents, but sometimes I'm more annoyed than thankful.

For instance, Saturday we attended a matinee ballroom dance performance. Although all the numbers were good, we were there primarily to see our child perform for 3 minutes, and I'm pretty sure that most audience members were there to see their 7th and 8th graders. Anyone wanting to see the JV and varsity dancers would likely attend an evening performance, since they didn't include junior high groups, yet JV and varsity numbers dominated the matinee.

Worse is my daughter's dance performance next week, the last day of school. She's supposed to be at the auditorium 1:00-4:00 for dress rehearsal, then perform at 5:00 and 7:30, arriving 30 minutes early for each performance. We'll be lucky if we're done by 9:00 (plus we had to pay admission on top of recital and costume fees). Seems a bit much for dancers, teachers, and families.

On the plus side, the elementary school is not having their annual musical performance this year. For the past two years they've put on 2-hour musical shows, performed three times (2 evening, 1 matinee) to a full gymnasium. Two years ago it was a patriotic program, last year an earth-day program. The shows started at 7:00 p.m. on school nights, and the teachers had to babysit their students and keep them quiet during the shows (how unjust). Perhaps after the environmental show my conservative neighbors complained about liberal brainwashing, thus suspending the grand tradition--if so, I thank them.

I know my parents, siblings, and friends sat through marathon choir concerts (and piano recitals) each December and May when I was in high school, and I never heard them complain. I'm not so generous. I say, leave us wanting more.

Thank you for your time.