Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To go on holiday in August

5 replies

dealer · 23/05/2011 07:06

Dds have recently joined a dance group. I originally struggled to find something for dd1 because she has mild sn, and other places had been too competitive and she couldn't keep up.

So when I went and spoke to the lady running this dance group i asked if she needed to be any good, and she said no, it was all-inclusive, several children with disabilities, and they did things like carnivals rather than competitions. She said all they asked for was commitment and reliability, which isn't a problem, we do that for ds' football. I didn't realise that they took them from 4 as well, so dd2 also ended up going.

It's a very reasonable weekly cost, but they needed quite a bit of uniform to start up, so my upfront costs were quite hefty.

A few weeks in, she gives me a (very extensive) list of events. I glanced through them, and said yes we should be able to make the majority of them. And she said quite sharply, no, I need you to make ALL of them. I said that we had a holiday booked for May halfterm, and would probably be away at some point in the summer too. She grumpily wrote down the May one.

Well, now we've booked for August and I've gone to her with the dates, and she's said 'you'll have to change that, I can't have them away for the bank holiday weekend.' Obviously, I've refused. Apart from anything else it's my birthday on the bank holiday, but ffs it's hard enough organising holidays around school etc. She's started grumbling that there's not much point coming then.

Yes, I said we could be commited, but I honestly didn't think that meant EVERY single date. Ds goes to 95% of football things, and they tend not to clash with holidays, but when he can't make it I just tell them, and they're fine about it.

OP posts:
Goblinchild · 23/05/2011 07:10

If it's a dance group, do they do performances? It might be why she needs to rely on them to be there, although it sounds draconic.
Surely there must be others who go on holiday, but you may end up having to choose whether you want that kind of pressure on you and your children all the time.

BoattoBolivia · 23/05/2011 07:11

does the group not have holidays then? She sounds very unreasonable! You are not picking and choosing which days you turn up every time, but I agree that a family holiday takes precedence.

dealer · 23/05/2011 07:19

I totally get that they have to practice in position, but I think it's completely unrealistic to expect every child to be there for every performance. There has to be some kind of arrangement for having a life outside of dance.

We can attend every single date in June and July, and the first half of August. That's 22 performances. That's often Sats and Suns and we did one the other day that got them home for 11.20pm on a school night, which wasn't fun getting the 4 year old up for nursery the next day.

OP posts:
BoattoBolivia · 23/05/2011 07:21

That sounds bonkers! Where are you? I can recommend a great inclusive dance group in Twickenham, which is much more laid back, and has school holidays off!

dealer · 23/05/2011 07:25

Sorry, miles away. We're down on the south coast.

My girls'll be gutted if they have to leave because she won't have them in the routines unless they're there for all of them. She originally said that we had to give 4 weeks notice for any we couldn't make, and if we didn't they charge £15 for non-attendance.

I think that is slightly bizarre, but I can live with that arrangement. It just means that I'm paranoid about clashing dates with other things.

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread