The latest scandel I’ve incurred is that of a over-zealous mother who realized two weeks ago that the Holiday Recital coincides with the annual family ski trip. She asked Chanel, the head of the recital, if we could move the show date. When that didn’t work, she agreed to bring her kid to the dress rehearsal to take pictures and that was it. I removed the kid from the choreography because, and let me spell this out: Her. Kid. Is. Not. Going. To. Be. There. Why bother, if the child is NOT going to be performing in the show? I stop seeing this kid, she doesn’t show up to rehearsals…she misses the end choreography and the group finale. Suddenly she shows up, less than a week before the show, and Mom says, “Yeah, we think we’re going to do it…she’s in the holiday show. It’s just so important for her, and now that her father’s chemotherapy is over, we have the time again” Oh my God. I took this kid out of the show…this isn’t going to work, chemo or no chemo.
Chanel calls the Mom on the phone for damage control and the Mom FREAKS out: She wants all her money back, rants and rails against me, rants and rails against the show, the school, me (again) and finally, begrugedly re-agrees to the previous terms: The Kid Will Show Up At Dress Rehearsal For Pictures. No surprise re-insertion of the kid into the choreography, no disadvantage to the poor kids that have showed up and put in their time, and no pulling the chemo card…(for crying out loud, it’s all very tragic, but that’s no excuse). Appearantly, I will never see this child again because the mother has banned her from my class forever…which is fine, we’re not talking a prodigal child here….but, to know that I am currently being boycotted stings a little bit.
It’s so typical, no matter how many parents come up and say they really like me, I do a great job with the kids, etc. it’s always the pissers that get to me. It’s always the parents who have temper tantrums that hurt my feelings and make me feel like crap. I suppose out of the 57 children that I taught this last semester, 2 is not so bad. That’s eight classes, which averages to about 7.12 kids per class, and only 2 had a freak out with me…wait, the kids didn’t have a freak out, the MOTHER’S of these kids freaked out. So what does that say?