The Dance of Dances

Well, I finally hit the dance floor here in our new little town … wasn’t sure if I’d ever get back out there and was thinking that the new Dance Dance Revolution Game was going to have to suffice for the dance fix down south. Well, I’m so proud of the 4th grade teachers to come up with this idea for a fund raiser for their class … a Father/Daughter & Mother/Son dance … how awesome is that?!?

Here are some fun pictures …
(read below for parenting trauma to get to this though … pictures don’t always speak the 1000 words)




Make a Smilebox scrapbook

So, for 2 years prior, Haley would go with her dad to this wonderful dance with her best buddy and her dad. My friend Jenny and I would just get so excited about the entire thing ... well, I've found, over the years with Haley ... that if I'm too excited about something that I've signed Haley up for ... she'll let me know she's not interested and get completely stubborn and awful about it ... soooooo, she would be rude and actually I think even kind of hurt her dad's feelings in how she behaved in going to these dances (once there she'd be fine, so I think she'd have a great time with her friend, but ... the process getting there was SO painful!!!). So, this year, the same little show started to evolve and I got angry, no more than that ... so much more than that. We started off with the consequence of "Fine, you'll come home and go right to bed and Connor and I'll go have a great time" ... her response ... "Fine". Oh, so not good enough of a response ... "Alright, you'll go and sit in a corner at the dance" I told her that she would be dressing up and she said she would not and I said, oh yes ... you get the idea ... oh not good the night before or the morning before school on the day of the dance.

When she came home from school that day, she was very respectful of her duty to fulfill her obligation ... she did the crime and she was ready to serve the time. She got into her nice clothes, immediately, no hesitation or complaint. We get to the dance and she even says, "I think I should sit farther over there so I can't see as well" She wasn't being sarcastic or anything!!! I had to hold back the laugh at that one. I made her hold our place in line for pictures as Connor and I danced. I think that was when she really began to regret it all and when we returned to line, she asked, "Mom, is it too late to change my mind?" I told her that she had done very well at getting dressed in the clothes I had picked and that she had been very good at "serving her time" and that it wasn't up to her to change her mind ... it was up to her Dad & I. So, when he got there ... she apologized ... and we caved. The dance was only a couple hours and she missed the first 45 minutes so ... it wasn't total caving ... but caving nonetheless. I know we wouldn't have had anywhere near the fun dancing and seeing her sit in the corner. We had a great family night. It was so wonderful to see our kids dancing with their friends and see the community come together. Good times.