To think my friend is taking the Nativity play a bit too seriously

[justfloatingpast]

She's been on the phone to me for ages complaining that the part of Mary has gone to a girl who only joined the school a few weeks ago and her daughter has asked to be Mary for the last three years (she's 8) and has never been cast and it's really not fair etc etc etc

I presume practically every girl in the class puts their hand up when asked who wants to be Mary this year, and the teacher has to pick one child.

My friend is really annoyed and wondering if she should say something to the teacher. Her daughter isn't a child who's constantly being overlooked. She plays on the school football team and was part of a group who won a prize for a project and were featured in a local newspaper.

AIBU to think she's over reacting and should just let it go?

DD was Mary last year. Shit role, Mary doesn't do anything. Gabriel and narrators get the best bits.

As PPs have said, and as DD's teacher admitted to me quietly, Mary is required to be on stage a lot - and that means for all the rehearsals as well while the other children are corralled. Mary and Joseph will be obedient and able to sit still for extended periods.

I was always narrator. Glad really

She’s overreacting. Unless perhaps her DD is one of only 3 girls in the class, and the only one who hasn’t been Mary before.

A potato! And I thought DS was bad with his role as 'stable cat'!

My daughter is angel Gabriel this year she has a solo song to sing. The teacher got all the girls in the class to sing a song and she was the best singer so got the part. A few parents are not happy that their child didn't get the part but the teacher told them he went with the best singer for the part. The kids of those parents are now the animals with no lines to say and the teacher told the parent that is what he was doing. Teachers know the kids and what part they are best suited to I feel. This is my DD's 1st speaking part and her last nativity so I'm happy she's got a really good part :)

I was never anything in a nativity play, painfully shy and prone to crying. One of my teachers in junior school decided this could not continue and told my parents I would be reciting a poem in the school production of Aladdin. They thought I wouldn’t do it but I did. The reason, our next door neighbour loaned me a pair of satin pyjamas to wear. The other girls in their winceyette Jim-jams gnashed their teeth with rage and jealousy.

I always wanted to be Mary but was always cast as the angel Gabriel because that needed someone to sing a solo. At the time it really upset me, but looking back it was a compliment.

My nephew was cast as Joseph for his first nativity and refused to do it. He told them he wanted to be the pub landlord instead DS, on the other hand, got to be Caesar, so he was happy because it was the best costume, at least in his 5 year old eyes.

You friend needs to get a grip.

An overreaction which I hope is not being passed on to her DD. We don't need another child being brought up to be a snowflake.

I’m my DD’s school each year group gets two goes at the nativity and the same girl in DD’s year was Mary both times. But on the plus side, Mary wasn’t blonde and I don’t think she said a word either time.

The school always does ‘variations on the theme of nativity’ so the parts vary each year. DD was one of the main parts in reception. So the following year I made sure she knew it was someone else’s turn for the main role and told her that it was a huge responsibility to be selected as a narrator (they have about 20 narrators as it’s a big school). She was thrilled when she was made a narrator. That’s probably the high point in my parenting.

To be fair as far as I remember potato was the only role available... There was the potato king, a few potatoes with names, and a lit if potatoes with numbers... There may also have been a chicken or cockerel actually, but perhaps my mind was wandering...

I have no memory of what the play was about despite the fact that shy dc2 who at that point could barely speak in front of an audience had memorised the entire script and wandered around the kitchen reciting it as ling as I appeared to be engrossed in cooking potatoes and really not to be listening...

Blue skies that's very cute! Dd reached the heady heights of 3rd donkey ... We are not an acting dynasty (though dh still goes on about giving his Hans bloody Christian Anderson 38 years after the event.)

DD1 was always narrator. DS was always Joseph or something else special. Youngest curly blonde DD was always a star or something else that meant she didn't have to do anything but stand there looking pretty. She would've loved to be Mary.

I was a shepherd and went onstage wearing my red fluffy bedroom slippers because my mum told me not to get cold.

My daughter was Mary , she’s a red head and never sat still in her life . She fidgeted so much she kicked baby Jesus and his manger off the stage . My son was a shepherd and pulled all the cotton wool off of the sheep.
My grandson is going to be a camel but seems set to carry on family tradition as he has decided he will be a vampire camel !

I was cast as Mary twice at junior school, both times because I was the best singer and had a few songs to sing (one started with an a capella verse that was then joined by a piano accompaniment, so needed to stay in tune). The first time, the parents of the girls in the year above me really kicked off because usually a year 6 was Mary and they'd cast a year 5. It was horrible and the girls in year 6 were nasty to me. Then the following year, the parents of the girls in my year kicked off because I had already been Mary... It was a terrible experience that the teachers really shouldn't have put me in, given I struggled socially...

supersop another ginger here who was always angel Gabriel. Everyone knows that the best part 😉

What does she expect the teachers response set to be? To take the part off the new girl and give it to her daughter !

My dd is very happy to be part of the crowd. Her friend - an African girl - is Mary and has to sing solos!

Never a leading role for either of my kids here. However my son did steal the limelight the year he was one of numerous shepherds ( not a speaking part), I'd gone all out with the wardrobe of dressing gown, tea towel and head band combo . He was sat at the front of the stage with his legs akimbo showing off his bright red Power Ranger pants throughout the performance (proud).

It was always the same girl as Mary in my class - the wispiest, blondest little thing, whose mother just so happened to teach supply quite regularly at our school. Gabriel was always one of the other wispy little blondes. I was always an angel.

My blonde curly hair meant I was never Mary. Always an angel and one year I was the north star.
My friend was always Gabriel with her ginger hair

I was Mary once. It was a non-speaking part & I was a quiet, shy child so that's why I was picked. I'm sure my DM had no clue what an honour had been bestowed upon her DD!

It didn't go as smoothly as it should've though.The teacher got very annoyed with me because apparently it was my responsibility to bring in a doll to play baby Jesus, but nobody had told me so I didn't

My son was a king in preschool. When it was time to say what gift he’d brought the baby jesus he proudly announced that he was giving him a Spider-Man web shooter.

My DD has just said that you are all being totally unreasonable as in her nativity she had to play a Table. Yes, she actually stood on stage bent over being a table