I hate those end of the school year award ceremonies. Every year is the same thing for me. I force myself to go to each ceremony for all three of my kids. The first one that I attend, I sit quietly for the first half trying to control myself, then I can no longer contain myself and start saying obnoxious remarks to whoever happens to be sitting next to me. Then I come home and start to rant at my family about how stupid the awards are. The next one I go to I start to whine to the person next to me as soon as I sit down. I come home with a headache. The headache continues until the end of the third one. Then I'm free at last, thank gawd I'm free at last!
For the record, my kids always get at least one award. They have been blessed with the ability to get good grades. But what about the kids that aren't able to get A's? What about the quiet kids that are great people but don't have the personalities to be the citizen of the year? What about the kids that play in the band and orchestra but don't have the talent to be outstanding? I know that some kids are motivated to perform because of the possibility of receiving one of those awards. Is that the message that we want to give them? Awards when you are a grown-up are few and far between but you still need to go to work everyday. You still need to get up every day and meet your responsibilities. I think a kind word or compliment from their teacher would be much better.
Award ceremonies are fine for the people who have kids that get awards but not so great for ones that don't. I have tried to put myself in their shoes. I guess I like to root for the underdog. I don't think that those underdogs should have to keep cheering for the "winners". By the way, if you are an underdog, I think you'll be the real winner in the long run! You'll learn to live your life to make yourself happy and not be looking for a pat on the back all the time.
Why do I go? Because it makes my kids happy. Don't ask me why it makes them happy, because by now they know its going to make me rant and rave for days.
What do you think? I don't want to be the only one ranting! Even if you are going to rant against me, I want to hear, just keep it clean please. Maybe you'll open my eyes to another point of view.
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3 comments:
it is good that you go, even if it ends up being a bad attitude that sits there with you... i imagine most of the kids have empty seats where their parents should be.... (or their parents are lost in real conversation with whoever is next to them...) see, even if you talk to your neighbor it is still about whats going on!
Misty, thanks for having a good attitude. Most of the times I do too, I really do! LOL See how happy I am now that they are all over?! I'm in Vermont right now at a Comfort Inn visiting relatives that live in NH! It's very laid back up here and relaxed. Nice.
I'm with you on this elise. We're lucky, my daughter is at a very small public school, for their 8th grade graduation ceremony teachers said a few words about each kid, maybe a few minutes for each kid, they all found positive things to say about all of them, even the quiet ones, even the slackers, even the non-academically oriented ones. It was really nice.
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