Monday, October 08, 2007

A Short Criticism

So today I'm at Kindermusik (aka let's make the overweight moms jump around and gallop like horses and feel like total buffoons IN FRONT OF A WALL OF FULL LENGTH MIRRORS!) and there was this woman there with her granddaughter. Now, let me preface this by saying that I admire her involvement in the kid's life by taking her to the class. Now, let me go ahead and say that I think it is both destructive to a kid's psyche and irritating to everyone within earshot to barrage a clearly shy child with a steady, harassing stream of, "Now, Samantha, everyone ELSE is playing with the instruments, why don't YOU want to play? PLAY! Now Samantha, Miss Amy wants us to march in a circle! Stop hanging on me and MARCH! Samantha, look at that other little girl, she's a GOOD girl, see how she's clapping? Can't you CLAP?" And so on and so forth. All while the poor child is staring, wide eyed and overwhelmed, at the roomful of yelling, prancing children who are marching and clapping and singing and playing maracas like toddlers possessed. All while Miss Amy keeps gently reminding you, "Some children are observers. It's okay if she doesn't want to participate right now." I really wanted to take Grandma aside and say, less gently, "Back the f off! This is supposed to be fun, remember?"

6 comments:

Mommy Daisy said...

Aww, now I feel bad for Samantha too. Do you think the grandmother pushed her to do it based on a generation gap? Would Samantha's mother have pushed her or let her watch? Hmm, I wonder.

Anonymous said...

I love Miss Amy's way of saying it, but I like your way even better.

ttsc said...

We go to music class to, we had to be a crow last time, that was real fun... you haven't lived until you flapped your arms making crow noises around the room with 10 other adults, while the kids stay still and stare at you, of course.

Marie Green said...

I love your description of overweight moms at Kindermusik!! Funny!

And poor Samantha. Grandma is just trying to be Good! and Fun! and the kid is not doing her part to be Good! and Fun!

Grr.

d e v a n said...

We go to Music Together, which is similar and last week a grandma brought 2 kids instead of the usual mom bringing them. She was the SAME way. They even ended up leaving early because they weren't "participating." Our Miss Amy (Yes, her name is Amy too!) said the same thing, but to no avail. *sigh*

Jess said...

Oh, that is sad. And also makes me think that I may need to avoid ever bringing my future child(ren) to such classes. They can go with their dad. I'm sure he'd like to gallop like a horse in front of a full length mirror.