Jayla threw the worst tantrum of her life this evening. She absolutely did not want to go to her dance class. She cried, screamed, wailed, fought, kicked, went limp, etc. for a full 30 minutes over this. She did not want to put on her pretty dance clothes. She did not want to dance with "her friends". She did not want to see Ms. Crystal. She did not want to do her crab walks, her frog jumps, or her log rolls. There was pretty much no reason compelling enough that would even give me a chance at prying her hands off the straps of her car seat. And the whole time I was trying to convince her, she kept yelling, "Start the car, mama! Start the car!". She was serious, ya'll.
So, I had to call in back-up: Daddy! We talked on the phone for a few minutes so that I could give him the scoop. He then came directly from work to the dance studio parking lot. He was determined to at least get her into the building. But, once he saw her determination, I think he had a slight change of heart. I had never seen her so adamant about something. And he didn't have the heart to try to force anything on her either. I eventually broke down because if you know me and how I feel about dance, then you know that my child had basically ripped out my heart and destroyed it. Plus, I have wanted to be a stage mother for my entire adult life and I was seeing my dream crash and burn before my eyes.
We never convinced her to dance tonight. Mama cried a bit, we came home, then mama sulked for a while. However, the rational part of me is fully aware that for a 2.5 year old to decide that she doesn’t want to dance one night is not her way of rejecting me. In fact, she showed genuine concern when she saw my emotions. It also doesn’t mean that she will not want to dance tomorrow or when she’s 3 or whenever. Neither does it mean that I will never be a stage mother. But, it does mean that I need to decide whether or not to keep her enrolled in the class because, seriously, when you are on a graduate assistant salary, there are better things to do with money than pay $50/month to be abused outside of a dance studio.
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2 comments:
Keep your head up...she may be so excited next week to go that you can't get there fast enough! I'd give it another week at least and see how she does and then go from there. Good luck!
Oh no! Are you ready to put her in soccer now??
Sorry...but I warned you. Our children are very independant spirits, and even though you want a dancer and I want a soccer player, we may end up with a chef and a swimmer...and that will be okay too.
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