Here's the scenario. Anna-Kate came home from school on Wednesday proclaiming, "I'm not going to sing tomorrow!" (in her Thanksgiving program at school). I asked why not, since she loves to sing. "Beacause I just don't want to." Whatever.
I went in to get her this morning and the first words out of her mouth were, "I don't want to go to school because I don't want to sing." I informed her that she was going to school and she was singing. I showed her...
Fast forward through drop off at 9, me having until 10:20 until I had to be seated at the program (in case you miss the significance, that is not very long. Did you catch the part about where I need all the time I can get these days??). Anyway, I rushed back from finishing my Christmas shopping (ya, that's right) and sat down on the front row, camera poised to capture my precious angel singing. Her class filed in with their fingers on their lips. All of the proud mama's started waving quietly and snapping pictures. Anna-Kate saw me, broke from line and came running, while sobbing, directly to me as her teacher said, "Anna-Kate, come back!". I asked her if she was OK or if something had happened and all she said was, "I just dont' want to sing!" (and by "said" I mean wailed it not quietly). It got to the point where I said, "you are disobeying Mommy, Jesus and your teacher and that is sin. You need to obey even when it isn't fun and even when you don't want to. You can obey the easy way, or the hard way, but you will obey and go stand with your class." Her teacher grabbed her hand and walked her up on stage where she stood, not singing, or even moving her mouth except in a sucking her whole hand kinda way, the entire time.
Filing in, pre-drama (oh, and they are "indians" in case you couldn't tell, she told me she was "Pocohontas Princess", figures. She's the 4th child from the right):
Post talk with Mama, obeying "letter of the law" if you will:
Not even throwing me a bone and mouthing a word or moving her hands as the rest of her friends did:
Clearly, she recovered:
Post "singing" eye-redness during the "feast" (of pretzels, grapes, marshmellows, apples and raisins. You know, typical fair for the Pilgrims and Indians...what are we teaching our children?)
Ironcially (I guess?)her teacher told me that yesterday at practice she had been worried how the show would go because only Anna-Kate and her best friend Emma were singing and doing the hand motions (as a side note, halfway through the songs, Emma ran from the backrow crying to her Mom. It made me feel better. I'm not gonna lie). Today? They were the only two of all of the kids (4 classes today) not singing or doing motions. Stage fright much?
So, who won this battle of wills? Not sure. All I said was she had to stand with her class. And she did.
5 comments:
Is it possible that another student made fun of AK and Emma, and that is why neither wanted to sing? Just wondering. It seems like a little more than stage fright.
aww im so sorry! poor thing and poor mama! marly did this during a dance presentation and it tore my heart because normally like AK loves to song, she loves to dance. and she did the mouth in hand too! i guess its hard to pressure 3 year olds! better luck next time.
I talked to her last night and she said something about the other kids laughing. So that's what I think.
She did this once before with ballet and it was because she got reprimanded by her teacher so somewhere along the road she got either corrected prior to the concert or was embarrased for some reason.
Ohh man, that's funny....your writing cracks me up! Don't feel bad, you should've seen EA at her Christmas program last year...she was the one standing up front on stage WAILING. Gotta love our high drama gals. Also, I wasn't aware of the fact that the pilgrams and Indians had juice boxes as well..... :)
I found out after Emily quit band after 7th grade that she was so afraid of making mistakes (she was in concert band, because she'd already had flute lessons and progressed beyond beginner band) that she NEVER made a sound in a concert. She could play the music beautifully at home, but was terrified of mistakes, so did nothing. I think Em would empathize with Anna-Kate! Love you!
~Carol
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