Dance

I am a dance mom.  Not one of THOSE dance moms.  Not the kind you see on that silly television show.  And yes, my kids do watch that show but we know that isn't "real", at least not our reality.

Our reality is that although my children love to dance, it isn't their whole life and we certainly don't run our family and household around their dance schedule.  But it does take up a significant amount of their extra cirricular time for 8 months of the year.

At the start of every season they are excited to see who their teachers will be.  Once choreography is started they can't stop singing and practicing their routine.  They get excited when they get their first fitting and love trying on their new costumes.  As soon as the competition dates and times are set they are pouring over it to see their own schedules as well as their friends.  All this culminates to the days of the actual competition when they get on stage and preform their routines which they have been practicing for months.

Competitive dancing has given The Big Oh and I lots of teaching opportunities for our kids.  Early on they knew if they wanted to be good at something it would require practice.  They also learned that practice didn't just mean one night or one week - some techniques and tricks have taken my children months to learn.  They learned not to give up.  They learned the importance of teamwork.  They learned to time manage and to make wise decisions - do your homework before your dance classes or you'll be up 'till 11:00 pm trying to finish it.  Dance also taught them to be gracious losers and modest winners (at least out in public).  One of the hardest lessons they had to learn is that sometimes life is just not fair - even though they feel they've given their all and worked 110% and feel they deserve recognition for what they've accomplished, they might not get it.

Hopefully they stick with dancing for a few more years.  Besides all these life lessons it's great exercise, and I just love watching them dance!