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dtvrivera dtvrivera

Your Middle Schooler is participating at a holiday concert at school. When you arrive you notice every child dressed up in formal clothes...

...and dress shoes while your son is wearing the jeans and printed T-shirt w/tennis shoes from earlier in the school day. You arrived 35 minutes early, but already a large crowd of students and parents are flocking into the gymnasium and you might not get a seat if you left to go back home. Would you take your son home to change if you only lived 5-10 minutes away and risk getting there a little late. Or would you let your son go on stage in front of hundreds of parents and visitors and be the only child not dressed nicely for this event that is covered by the local TV station and will have a photo in the newspaper? What about how your child might feel being the only one under-dressed for the occassion?
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bitbit
bitbit
Marked as Best! November 30, 2009 07:54 PM
You mention that every one else is dressed formally... which leads me to believe that that is a miscommunication between you and your son or your son and the instructor. As a parent of 3 adult children who have performed or participated in school and church functions of entertainment I may have been over prepared. I continually asked questions about the attire, the time, etc. But in this case it appears your son dropped the ball so to speak. And as hard as it seems sometimes we just have to let our children suffer the consequences of their own action or lack of responsibility (if that's the case).

I might have made the mad dash just to appease my child at the moment but I would also have taken the opportunity to scold him, and contact the instructor to find out how the information about attire was distributed and see if there is a way for the instructor to set up a list-serve to email direct to parents about such important information. Hope all went well no matter what your decision!
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dtvrivera
dtvrivera
November 30, 2009 10:55 PM
Yes, well, my son had to learn the hard way. We ended up staying and he sang on stage with jeans and a t-shirt. :) It was a miscommunication on his part, since he failed to bring home a note from the choir instructor notifying us parents about the proper attire for the event. I never received this info and it didn't help that this was his first-ever school concert, so I had no previous experience. Needless to say, we will be overprepared from now on as well. :)
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gno
gno
December 01, 2009 01:41 PM
Yes, I would say that you should always assume concerts, recitals, etc (anything on a stage) ALWAYS requires formal dress. Remember that jeans/t-shirt dress is only appropriate for play. Formal dress shows not only respect for the audience and all of your son' rehearsal time, but also for the teacher who organized the whole show. :)
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shewolfsil...
shewolfsil...
November 30, 2009 10:24 PM
In my experience with my children there is always a dress/costume list for holiday programs and such. If I failed to get the list I would have definitely asked. If for some reason this had happened we would have dashed home to change their clothes. When we arrived late I would explain the situation and hope I didn't hold things up to long.
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