to be surprised that somebody would choose not to go to their child's harvest festival when...

[emkana]

... they had no other commitments.

And please don't jump on me, I am really open to having it explained to me why somebody would choose not to attend.

what is harvest festival? is it the thing where you take in tins of food for old/poor people? and you do a big pile of veg in church? is it a c of e thing? totally passed me by going to catholic school.

I cannot recall whether my mother attended harvest festivals, xmas plays etc or not. I'm obviously not traumatised by it.

I just asked DD (aged 22) if she remembers being upset by me missing harvest festivals due to me working. She cannot recall me being there or not being there.

Maybe she has to take a day off work to attend these things and can only take one a year.

Either way, it's her business and not yours. What about the child's father, do you want to know whether/why he will/won't be attending too?

wind it in emkana.it is their private adult family choice.not yours.don't die speculating

I would be surprised too. Unless it's a case of having younger child who would also have to come and would be likely to wreak merry havoc and shout (in which case I empathise. DS can be interesting when taken to the parents assemblies )

Harvest Festivals really are boring. I never remember my parents attending mine...i don't think parents attended at all. What's the big deal anyway?

I made the mistake in my DDs early school years, thinking they'd be traumatised if i couldn't attend every little thing. When i finally had to miss something we all realised it wasn't actually the end of the world, and now i am alot more chilled about the whole thing. I suggest you do the same, emkana!

I'll think about it

If it was school play I could understand but not harvest feastival.

harvest festival is a big thing in our local infants as well
one ticket per child
each class does a performance

invariably you can't see a bloody thing unless you are one of those mums who always get front row by queing for ages

I go as my ds loves to see me there but it is dull.ONce I've waved at him I tune out tbh
I went after doing a night shift ...should get a gold star for that!!!

50 million reasons

10 zillion better things to do

choose to spend the day scrubbing the bog instead

at this

Well I wish I hadn't attended my DS's.
As soon as he saw me he started crying and didn't stop until he got back to his classroom.
Suppose I will have to hide at Christmas concert.

I'd just scrub the bog instead.

Really, it's a hugely outdated notion.

My mum might have attended Harvest Festival (can't for the life of me remember her attending one. Or me attending one, come to that).

She wouldn't've been checking my homework on an online forum set up for the purpose.

Different times, different expectations.

what?? not want to go and spend an hour grinding your arse-bones into a cold pew for an hour in a draughty cold church, with your thighs pressed up against some foetid stranger's, craning your neck to catch a candle-blurred glimpse of your child over a sea of hacking-coughs, cleared sinuses, shriking infants and warbling blue-rinse Tories, to celebrate the bounteous gift of 34 tins of beans, a pineapple with a Sainsburys label on it and a poppy seed bloomer?

No, but seriously - I missed ds1's harvest assembly this year, I CRIED

Greensleaves am PMSL - a like minded soul clearly
Can I whisper very quietly that I feel the same about the Xmas concert TBH but will go and smile and wave

I was rejoicing because at our school the nativity is done by KS1 and as dd2 is now in year 3 that meant no Christmas torture entertainment to attend. But guess what? The buggers teacjers have only gone and done a pantomime for years 3 and 4 so I have to go watch dd2 giving her all as a beetle!!

People seriously judge you for not going to the Harvest bloody festival? The words "life" and "get" spring to mind. They are always at a time expressly designed to piss off working parents anyway - 10.15 in the morning or something.

i went to harvest festival this year. and giggle at a little boy who was enjoying his own little festival of his bogies! hehe. kids are fun to watch.

Harvest Festival is not a big thing at all where I live. I don't think I've ever even known the dates

Crikey. I must be a very bad mum as harvest festival was never even on my radar when dcs were at primary school. Didn't realise other parents went to them! DS1 now left school and DS2 home ed so have missed my opportunity but neither seems to be traumatised...

I am rubbish at attending everyhing but my kids range from 16 weeks to 16 years so i like to use that as an excuse

howver by a FLUKE i set aside bog scrubbing and did go this year with baby and toddler

luckily my friend was sitting outside with her ds son as he was bored rigid and she offered to guard my pram whilst i dragged toddler into overcrowded church for rather pious service about starving children in Africa

well.....

when we sand i was virtually singing a solo and all the children were turning round and giggling at me

not a 'We plough the fields and scatter' in sight!

Harvest Festival a BIG THING around here

had to practically chew my hand of when they started singing some creationist type drivel

i've done 2 years in a row, so i deserve a year off

I am not judging.

I take your point that some parents would rather not go, and that children will not be traumatised.

(my children, however, would be very upset if I chose not to attend. Hence my initial surprise.)

But this woman isn't your children's mother, so your children will be unaffected

I know that, I am just explaining why I started the thread.