It's Tuesday. You know what that means!

[Baitball Blogger]

It's Dance Moms Night!

"Go Maddy, go! The pressure is riding on you kid! Don't mess it up. If you're going to shoot for second, don't waste your time. Don't waste my time."

Okay, so I have to ask. What DUer was raised under this kind of intense pressure? How well did you turn out coming from this kind of thing? My gut reaction is that once the classes are over you never waste time looking up the children and parents from the old class. Why do I watch? Heck, in a sociology class I had to watch three beagle puppies and monitor their behavior. It's about the same thing.

[HopeHoops]

1. I was thinking "TOMORROW IS HUMP DAY!"

[pipi_k]

2. With me, it wasn't dance class...

It was school.

And the drum corp/color guard I belonged to.

My mom was obsessed with us kids having a perfect attendance record at school. I think the only one of us five kids who pleased her was my youngest sister (21 years younger than myself). Perfect attendance. Which isn't worth shit in the real world. I mean, not really. Does anyone ever get to the end of his or her life and sigh with pleasure because he or she had a perfect school attendance record?

No.

The one thing my mom did end up ruining for me was drum corp/color guard, which I enjoyed a whole lot, but which, as I got older, I would want to sometimes skip practice to do something else. Not often...maybe once every few months.

Well...her rules...if I skipped practice, I would be grounded. She took something that was fun for me and turned it into an obligation.

That's when I quit.

Advice to parents...don't make your kids' fun activities into something they'll come to resent.

[turtlerescue1]

3. The Blessing is to be easily amused.

It is Tuesday, and that means that this goofy picture is to be taken by the City Limits sign with the County Sheriff. It has been scheduled, rescheduled, and once more today it was my task to call everyone on the N-Hood Watch phone tree and advise the time is NOW to be 1 p.m. instead of 2. That pretty well sums up my Tuesday for this week.

[Baitball Blogger]

4. We are blessed when our days are so uncomplicated.

[HappyMe]

5. I was lucky, in that my mom

wasn't one of those pushy stage mom types.
We were expected to do really well in school. Not a pressure type situation.

Nobody I knew took dance lessons.

I never watch Dance Moms.

[Baitball Blogger]

6. The kids are beyond talented.

And watching the weaker performers improve is pretty neat.

The moms are unbelievable. But, I guess when you have a system that appears stacked, the results will always be chaos.