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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To shudder at performing stage school children?

27 replies

Bubble99 · 24/07/2008 18:35

DS4 is obsessed with The Wiggles at the moment and we have been watching the same video over and over again.

What is it about child performers? I usually (well, most of the time) see children and smile fondly.

Is it because I'm not from a thesp background and therefore don't appreciate 'the craft.'

It's their fixed smiles that wind me up, mostly.

BTW. To the mnetter who thinks Anthony (with a 'th') is 'hot.'

You're weird.

OP posts:
motherinferior · 24/07/2008 18:36

That would be a no, YANBU. The rictus fixed smiles are too Midwich-y for normal children.

Bubble99 · 24/07/2008 18:40

Pleased I'm not alone, MI.

They look so high maintenance, don't they?

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StarSparkle · 24/07/2008 18:40

Hi, my DD is also wiggles fan.... she loves them and i have to watch the same DVD over and over again !

TBH i understand what you are saying about stage school kids - find them cringe worthy. But must add that i hae never been onto performing arts either

I have'nt found the kids on the wiggles stuff that bad.... take a look at the ones on Barney dvd's .... now thats stage school
cringe !

After taking DD to a recent wiggles concert I had a dream about Murry ...... i don't even fancy him. {blush] so can emphases with the mnetter who thinks anthony (with th) is hot.

motherinferior · 24/07/2008 18:42

They are not, really, not functionally, children, are they. Normal children are a bit chaotic and occasionally have runny noses and refuse to behave immaculately.

Or perhaps that's just mine, of course

Cammelia · 24/07/2008 18:45

And their faces usually look about 50 on child's bodies

motherinferior · 24/07/2008 18:48

They are also having to be too damn responsible. Normal kids should be able to fluff something, including a dance performance, without it actually mattering.

StarSparkle · 24/07/2008 18:48

I find child actors in big films scary.

They are about 12 and sit there in interveiws talking like they are adults and are so grown up
... (shudder)

tamarto · 24/07/2008 18:49

The wiggles kids have nothing on the Barney kids, they paved the way!

YABU as it's wiggle kids, but if we include Barney ones you are most definitely NBU

LadySanders · 24/07/2008 18:49

i just had to look up the wiggles website to see which is the one i fancy. its anthony with a th too.

Bubble99 · 24/07/2008 18:50

Exactly. No child should be that confident, surely?

We're all supposed to blunder through life until we hit 40 and then think "Aha! So that's what it's all about."

By which time gravity and life has caught up with us - and we can't do the stuff that we knew we were supposed to be doing?

Or maybe that's just me?

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sarah293 · 24/07/2008 18:51

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Bubble99 · 24/07/2008 18:53

I take it back. I can understand how even Murray might be appealing at 5am after four hours sleep.

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Bubble99 · 24/07/2008 18:55

LadySanders.

But do you really fancy him? Or just fancy him in comparison to to the others?

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trockodile · 24/07/2008 18:56

AFAIK Barney actually made a big deal of not using 'professionals' but ordinary children -also special needs kids if I remember correctly. Long time since I watched Barney though.

BettySpaghetti · 24/07/2008 19:00

I was going to mention the Barney children too - always grinning manically smiling, always dancing/skipping/jumping/bobbing around and never still.

Flamesparrow · 24/07/2008 19:02

The children was my main reason for avoiding Barney at all costs.

There is no way they weren't stage children!

LadySanders · 24/07/2008 19:04

bubble, hmmm, i'd definitely take him instead of jeff.... i seem to remember that hte pirate was a bit of alright?

emj23 · 24/07/2008 19:08

Well, in RL, it's all very well if it's the child's choice to get involved with acting, it's just when they've been pushed into it that it gets to me. I can't stand parents who try to get their children to do a 'party piece' like sing a song or something whenever there's any kind of an audience, it makes me cringe.

Back on the topic though, the children in telly programmes do always look a bit scarily intense, like they're concentrating too hard and are under a lot of pressure.

cornsilk · 24/07/2008 19:11

I think some of those children might actually be children of the Wiggles themselves, which is even more scary.

falcon · 24/07/2008 19:17

I can't be convinced that the Barney children are human, they must be robots or part reptile hence lack of emotion with the exception of a permanent inane grin.

mrsruffallo · 24/07/2008 19:18

I was a stage school child and there is nothing wrong with me

Bubble99 · 24/07/2008 19:19

Mmmm. Captain Feathersword?

Again, it's all in the comparison - isn't it?

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Bubble99 · 24/07/2008 19:20

mrsruffallo.

I can see you gurning from here.

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MrsTiddles · 24/07/2008 19:25

I feel sorry for stage school kids. They've been handed a copmletely warped sense of values and expectations, which they often cannot live up to (i.e. many more kids than roles for them, or successful transitions from child to adult performer).

StarSparkle · 24/07/2008 19:25

Ha ha ! Look at ur preving over the wiggles !

Mums I talk to seem to like captain feathersword ! Must be something to do with his featherstick !

Blimey...all us mum do is put up with kids tv/dvd's... we have to find something that takes our interest when being made to watch things agaisnt our will !