I cannot stand watching my child do dance /shows !

I love this when they do this! One of the enjoyable bits of parenting. Now if they ask me to play some game where you make the teddies talk or the like - argh. Hate it.

That’s wonderful. I’m so glad she made it xx

Exactly!

Primary school {‘ musical evenings ‘ were the worst. 2 hours watching other kids murder a violin or perform on other instruments, non of which had been learned in school. Then two minutes of Hot Cross Buns screeched on a recorder by one of mine, in a large class group. Cruel and unusual punishment and should have been banned.

Oh I don’t mind that at all!

I didn’t like imaginary play when they were little, as it was so endless.

Now I find it hard to sit through the swimming galas, but I enjoy all the performance stuff.

Oh don't even. I work in the arts industry.I've taught performance. I take my children to all sorts of performance programs. I watch as many of their shows as I can. I take them to a huge variety of different medium of performance. We talk about the shows they are in and the shows we see.

But honestly watching not very good dance for multiple hours is tedious. As least at swim meet at least I can chat with other parents as well as watch the swimming.

You need to suggest hairdressing / barbers or spa treatment to them, you’re the customer, very relaxing!

I’m delighted to read this! I felt really sad for all those sweet children proudly creating their performances, for parents who were too bored to watch them.

My DD2 got one of those books - “1000 jokes for 9 year olds”

Oh my - that was painful.

My DD was having a piano lesson and she played a beautiful piece. She was about 13 and I was sitting behind her and her teacher. I let the music take me and tears rolled down my face, which was fine until they both stared at me with worried looks. Whoops. It was a moment that I will cherish forever.

Mine have done this from being small- generally instigated by the older one. They tend to go like this:

stage 1: practicing and playing together relatively nicely

stage 2: youngest child has enough of being bossed around- world war 3 breaks out

stage 3: tears and negotiation. An abridged version of the show is agreed upon with child no.1 promising not to be bossy and child 2 agreeing to take part.

stage 4:Show commences. First song goes well. However, it generally falls apart by song 3. child no.2 is doing it under duress, child no.1 is upset that the vision hasn’t been realised.

Stage 5. Child no.2 gives up. Child no.1 cries because she’s ruined the show. We console child 1 and say it was wonderful as it was.

Then rinse and repeat a few weeks later.

YABU, DDs are terrific dancers and I always enjoyed watching them. Still do, DD1 still dances at university.

But maybe the rugby is the universe's karma for all the "shows" I made my parents endure. My cousin would storm off half way through as we always made her be the "square" character and we were the cool ones with leg warmers and pretend cigarettes.

I hate rugby because it's cold/ wet and also there's the risk that they might actually get quite injured and then you have to listen to 40 minutes of how the ref was definitely biased all the way home as they smear mud all over the car. And the coffee is always terrible. Guess where I'm going tomorrow? FML.

I'm ok with the impromptu dance/drama shows right up to the point where they say, "no, that wasn't quite right, I will do it again." And the whole thing starts again, unless I can think of a decent reason why they can't.

To be fair I’ve had to go through both and the standard of most Eistedfodd performances is higher than the random stuff my kids perform. I don’t mind the first couple times but my kids like to make me watch them adjust each performance until they’re happy with it- could go on for 2 hours if I don’t put an end to it…

This. If there’s anything worse than watching your own kids not-that-great dancing, it’s sitting through hours of other people’s kids doing their not-that-great dancing, just so you can see the five minutes of your own 🤦‍♀️

After having three sons all into football I agree 🤣 especially when their team lost and I had to drive them home after 😬 i do miss those days now though!

I do get it, (my DD used to create her own musicals but with only one song that she sang over and over for ages!) but they want you to watch because you are the centre of their world and they want to share with you what they’re doing.

In the blink of an eye they’ll be adults with their own lives and I promise you’ll miss the days when they were children who wanted to share everything with you.

It’s not. It’s a process.

Oh god, but pretty much every single performance early in the process of learning is absolutely crap. You only clap for your kid because you have to. It's like having a child learning a musical instrument. It's bloody awful!

Things get better if they stick to it, the shows/performances get better and better, and at some point they usually become enjoyable .. but you have my sympathy here! The crap stage is what you have to get through, unfortunately.

As someone who teaches children to play music, and is involved in planning many assemblies at schools showing how the kids are progressing.. I feel your pain.

It. Is. AWFUL.

This reminds me of my middle DGD . She is an only child and possibly autistic . I live with them , her, DD and SIL . I have my own separate living room from them and every evening she would put on a show for ME in my living room while DD and her husband watched tv in peace 🤣. This went on from the age of 6 till about 12 . I never minded because when my DD was that age I was a nurse and worked long shifts so wasn’t always there for her .

I cringe at remembering doing mini dance shows for my grandma. She had been a ballet dancer prior to getting married. And there was me on her kitchen lino, lumping around ungraceful in my dungarees. She was very enthusiastic about my efforts.

my 2 dd used to do these shows, often just before bedtime. They were sweet and boring in equal measure! But yes I miss them now they’re gone. And dd12 does dance. I really enjoy the shows - there are some really talented dancers. I’m not a fan of watching sports so I’d probably struggle if my dc played football or swimming.

My daughter can solve a Rubik’s cube in under 2 minutes, which amazes me. What doesn’t enthral me is having to “mix it up” 72,827 times a day.