Last night we went to watch Emma's school's Christmas concert. The preschool classes were up first, and everyone looked so cute dressed up in their Christmas best. Emma and one of her friends hooked up almost from the time we walked in the door, and they appeared on stage together, holding hands through the first three songs.
If only her friend could have held Emma's hand a little tighter for the final song, ours might not have been one of the runaway reindeer. The little boys in the sweater vests were having a fun time jumping around on the stage during the songs. And when the teachers went around to all the children before the final song, to give them their reindeer antlers and put a touch of red on their noses, the two little boys decided jumping wasn't fun enough--they needed to run around and explore the rest of the stage. And guess who else decided it would be fun to go exploring too! Yep! About half way through the first verse, they took off. They made it over to the side of the risers and were getting down to go check out an open door before one of the teachers got to them and herded them back towards the rest of the children. "Herding cats," was what one of the teachers call it, appropriately enough. Emma returned to her spot, but by that time she had no idea what was going on in the song, so she just jumped around some more and played with her antlers until the song was finished. I've got it on tape, if anyone wants to see it.
As the parent of one of the runaway reindeer, I felt like laughing and yelling all at the same time. The rest of the audience was laughing at the mischievous preschoolers, so lively and quick. And to be honest, I thought it was kind of funny too. But at the same time, I wanted to run up on stage and yell at Emma to return to her spot and do what she was supposed to do. I was frustrated that she was being disrespectful by not listening to her teachers, and by taking the attention away from the other children who were singing their song nicely. And so the internal conflict arose: I don't want to miss the funny moments in life because I'm so caught up in wanting my children to act all stiff and plastic. But I don't want my children to run through life, thinking it's OK to goof off anytime they get the urge. Anyone else hear me on this?
2 comments:
I understand the inner turmoil.
....but I'm sure it was so much fun to watch!
Just think of it this way: they're still young enough to look cute when they're mischevious. They have the rest of their lives to "do it right"...
That's when I grab the camera to quickly record the said mischief, then discipline, then run and hide so I can laugh it off :) The things they don't tell you in those darn prenatal classes
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