Dual Performers
Most of the year, my 7 year old daughter E and 5 year old son C were doing acrobatics class. They had to learn a dance routine and put on a performance to cap off the season. I originally didn’t think they had to do a performance since it’s not ballet, jazz, or any traditional types of dances. In the end, I had mix feelings about the performance day, but not for the usual reasons.
On the day of the performance, E had to do a ballet performance in the morning. That meant babysitter for my 2 year old son L for most of the day and the rest of us were out of the door early in the morning. We got to the venue with plenty of time to spare and took our seats after dropping E off with the other dancers. I was ready for a good time.
Most of the performances were fine and C was generally in a good mood. It wasn’t until he started to get impatient after seeing E perform that things went downhill. He couldn’t sit still and the Yoto player we brought to occupy his time wasn’t working with his headphones. It was really hard to get him to be quiet, but when things wrapped up, we zoomed out of our seats to pick E up.
Something about the days that E performs always bother C. I’m not sure if he is jealous of the attention that E gets and all the praise that comes with it, but he is extra moody. He was causing a scene as we all tried to take pictures and it blew up as we continued walking to the car. C made a lot of bad choices, didn’t listen, and was screaming uncontrollably. I didn’t know what to do and luckily my wife was somehow able to calm him down.
We went to eat lunch and it was as if nothing happened, expect I was still frustrated that every performance day is met with the same outcome. It’s like groundhogs day for me and I couldn’t shake the feeling for a while. After lunch, we went to the playground to burn some time and calories. It was a good way to reset and I had a talk with C eventually when we were wrapping up the playground time. I just wanted to let him know that he should not lose control and to find ways to calm down in those situations. It was still too fresh and he didn’t want to talk too much about it, so we left it at that for the time being.
We ended up going back for the final performance with the dual performers in costumes. They were going to be frogs and do some awesome moves. Both E and C were excited to perform and my wife and I were excited for some quiet time without the kids. As the performances were wrapping up before E and C took the stage, the auditorium lost power. It was a 20 minute delay and thankfully it wasn’t much longer. I was worried we were going to be way past the time we needed to be home so our babysitter could leave. We let her know it would be about 20-30 minute later by the time we would be back and luckily it wasn’t a big problem.
With the power back on, the performances went on as well. E and C eventually got out on the stage and crushed it. They were so cute doing their routine and I’m so glad they were even performing next to each other. During the routine, they would also be dance partners for certain parts and they loved those parts especially. It was so great to cap off a hectic day with an awesome dual performance by E and C.
The day went about as I unexpected as it could have gone. I was ready for the fights, a few curve balls, and hopefully a few laughs and as expected, those things happened. What was unexpected was the extremes to which it happened and that was what I was unprepared for. It still was a memorable day and both E and C had so much fun during their performance. They both go flowers to cap off the day and even though there were ups and downs, I’m glad we pushed through everything together because that’s just how life is!
