It should have been fun but...

Isaac had his first show tonight at Circus Juventas, and we were all very excited. We ran out for dinner together, and got there early... Isaac was led away to backstage for the show and we eagerly awaited. The show is a 3 hour "recital" for all of the kids from toddlers at the start to highs schoolers. The show started at 7, which is actually when we like to get Isaac started for bed, so we knew we couldn't stay for anything beyond his little bit.

Now, during the dry run, we were told we, the parents, would be at one end of the stage and the kids would come over to us at the end. So when we headed that way for the show, we were stopped by the ushers and told that no, we had to wait in the lobby, we couldn't watch the kids, and they'd be brought to us afterwards. THEN, another person said we could "sneak" over to one of the side stage areas by the bleachers, but we'd have to keep back with bad sightlines and no seats. And several times during the (5 minute) set people came through hissing at us to "leave a path - people need to get through" - of course the only people who actually needed to come through were the people hissing at us.

Through this Bella started crying - she just wanted to see her brother. Unbeknownst to us, Isaac in his 45 minutes backstage was getting anxious - he thought we had LEFT him, and was getting freaked out, and when he did come out to perform, he didn't know where we were.

Ok - I'm sympathetic that 90% of the audience is parents of kids in the show - you can't have them not paying for the show. But for the kids who are 6 and up, the parents are free to drop them off and pick them up later. For the toddlers, the kids need to see their parents, and the parents need to see the kids. And it's unreasonable to ask us to buy $20 tickets for the 5 minute toddler parade.

I think it would have made a lot more sense to have a little roped off area for the parents of the toddlers and kinders, let us just beam with pride and lead the kids to us at the end - it would have been an "awwww cute" moment.

As it is the whole thing left us feeling sort of shabby - like we had to sneak in to see Isaac perform. We should have been sneaking cigarettes too. Knowing this is the scoop for next year too doesn't really fill me with excitement.