Parents just don't understand (gotta love Will Smith)

Our local high school band where we just moved seems pretty awesome. Although they really do need some flag girls to jazz it up a bit. I'm not biased in this area at all. From about third grade through sixth grade I was also a majorette. It was really fun, met some really neat people. My mom was the one that got me interested in twirling as she and her cousin were the majorettes for their high school. That was back in the day when their uniforms looked more like a drum majorette's. Not too much skin showing now, ya here? I always did hate the one uniform we had with the sequins for the top half. Extremely itchy when the temp. rose over 100 for some of our parades! Good thing I wasn't developed at that point. Would have made it much worse. I always did miss the twirling after our instructor moved away and our group dissipated. Last year I started up a group of twirlers because I thought it would be a fun way to get back into it. The group included my daughter, her best friend, 4 of my sister's kids, and one other girl who is a family friend. It was an interesting group as none of them seemed to want to listen when it was practice time. But then when I threatened (talked to sternly) them that we may just end baton lessons, they all took it pretty hard. So we continued, they listened for a while, and we actually had a somewhat successful performance at Christmastime. We went to an elderly care home and performed a very simple (and boring) routine to Jingle Bells. We also did a little diddy to Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree (have a happy holiday). Great--now I'm gonna have that idiotic song stuck in my head the rest of the day. Anyhow, I didn't anticipate how long it would take for some of them to catch onto the most basic twirls. So, our routines ended up pretty bland. But the old people loved it. One lady fell asleep part way through but I'm sure she enjoyed the part she did see. I really felt bad when we had made the decision to move and I had to tell the kids that we would not be practicing anymore.

A few days ago, Jesse (daughter) came home with a flyer for baton camp. Yeah!! We got our batons out and started playing around outside a bit. She decided she does want to try it again. The teachers for the camp are the three majorettes for the high school. She will probably listen to them much better than she did with me as I am just --boring old mom--.

Bobby (son) was in band the past 2 1/2 years. The first year he played trumpet. Mainly because we already had a trumpet and a trombone at home and he did NOT want to carry that big thing back and forth to school. Can't blame him there. The next year he decided to try the drums. Partly because one of his friends played and partly cuz he didn't have to carry an instrument home. He was actually pretty good at drums. The next year he decided to try drums again. This was in 6th grade. Somewhere along the way, he lost interest and stopped going to class. We did not find this out until the Christmas concert was coming up and he had no clue when or where it was going to be. We talked to his teacher and she informed us that he had not been coming to class for the past couple of months. Turns out he didn't want to miss out on science class so he stopped going to band. Kind of dissappointing to me and hubby as we know how much fun band can be and how much the social aspect of it changed our lives. But I am a firm believer in parents not trying to live through their kids. Just because we enjoyed something as kids, does not mean that our kids will have a passion for it. And vice versa. If there is something that sparks their interest that we think is idiotic, we need to withhold any comments and support them in their passion. And what is up with the mothers who dress up their little girls for those pathetic beauty pageants? Make up and curling irons are not meant for 4 year old girls so they can go parading around like their all grown up. Jon Benet Ramsey. Need I say more?