Tuesday, September 04, 2007

The good and the bad.

The good, first, shall we? that way I can be reminded that I LOVE my daughter.

when I picked her up from school---

"Mom, guess what? Ashley and I have the same germs now!"

"Oh really?"

"Yes, so even though we aren't family, it's okay! 'Cause she had a drink, juice, cranberry juice, and she took a drink, and didn't even wipe the top, and then I took a drink, AND we kissed on the bus on the way back, so now we have the same germs!"

She was so excited. It cracks me up sometimes, the things she comes up with.

and now, the reason that sometimes, only sometimes, I want to, almost, slap her.

For MONTHS she has been excited about tap class. She decided on her own that she wanted to do tap instead of ballet, or gymnastics, or anything else. We signed her up, bought tap shoes and the required shirt with the studio logo, and waited. She went to dance camp, where she had fun, and she was looking forward to September, when tap class started.

Then today. We go into class. She puts on her shoes. They line up. The teacher starts going over basic steps. Kaia lasts about 2 minutes, then comes over to me. "I don't want to do tap, it's boring."

WTF!?!?! She was mad in dance camp when they only did tap for part of the class. She's been putting her tap shoes on and "practicing" for WEEKS. and now it's BORING!?! $30 tuition for a month, $15 tap shoes, $5 shirt, for TWO FUCKING MINUTES OF CLASS. She flat out refused to finish even one lesson.

Now, I'm all for making her follow through. But there's only so much I can do without disrupting the class, which is extremely rude, and always pisses me off when other parents do it. So after about 5 minutes of whispered argument, we left. In the car, I assured her that she has used up her allotted money for fun classes for a good while. When we got home, Mike brought out the Daddy Voice and let her know in no uncertain terms that her behaviour is unacceptable, then sent her up to clean her room.

She has just come down to tell me she's finished. I plan on taking a bag up, and anything not done- "it's ALL done, mama! I PROMISE!"- will go in the bag, never to be seen again.

I want her to be able to do fun things. I want her to have opportunities and learn talents and have good childhood memories. I want to be able to let her choose fun things to go do. It's not that I am forcing her to sign up for these things! I am not one of those parents who makes their child take all sorts of classes.

now I am babbling. I'm done.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

A kid can be offered a choice--"either you do this (some horrible thing) or you may take tap and try to believe it will get better."

Another option is to realize that she is really too young to be spending money on stuff that requires a long attention span. There are other things she could be taking that may not require this. Or nothing! A little time at home is easier for you--less chauffering--and nice for her too, maybe? There will be plenty of years to get into the harder stuff....