[quote=eavesdropper]
These “stage parents” are all over these days. My 15 yr-old daughter plays the cello, and performs in a couple of youth orchestras. You should see some of the parents. I’m afraid to let her go to rehearsals by herself. And, unfortunately, the parents’ attitudes have been passed on to some of the kids. The competition is incredible, and the atmosphere is vicious at times. So much for the joy of music.
These parents think that their kids can be trained to be great athletes and musicians and performers. They don’t understand that greatness is not possible in the absence of talent, and that talent will not flourish in the absence of desire. They just push and push and push, and screw up their kids in the process. But there CAN be joy in the absence of talent, and this appears to be a incomprehensible concept for many parents – the idea of their kids participating in an activity just for the fun of it.
[/quote]
Eavesdropper: My daughter rides horses competitively (Hunter/Jumper) and that is truly a freakin’ circus. I don’t mean to sound chauvinist, but, as bad as guys can get, these women (and it is a sport dominated by women) are nuts!
I have seen everything from shouting matches over how a horse’s mane is properly braided to a physical altercation over which rider was going first in a competition. I saw a teenager in tears because her friend made fun of her $8,000 saddle (her friend’s saddle cost $25,000 and she was announcing this loudly to everyone) and I saw two moms, who were driving nearly identical Range Rovers, exchanging verbal barbs over the proper horse shampoo to use.
These are the times where I think we’ve lost our collective minds, societally speaking.
