Disco Duck

KitKat and Sunshine have been asking me if they could take ballet. I 've tried to ignore their request because I really don't need one more place to be in the afternoons, but they are persistent so I'm about to give in. There are only two or three ballet studios in town and I must confess that I will not be walking into the one that starts with an "N"! And it really has nothing to do with the ballet studio or the instructors. I think I have a bad reputation there and I'm too embarrassed to return!

Here's the story: I was 9 months pregnant with Sunshine when it was time to register AAA for ballet. A dear friend volunteered to not only register AAA for me, but to also take her and pick her up from dancing lessons all year long! (Her little girl was in the same class as AAA). So of course I accepted the offer. So I bought AAA the cutest little leotard you've ever seen, along with a matching scrunchy,a tiny pair of pink ballet shoes, and shiny pink tights. And ,of course,she had a darling little ballet bag with her name on it. Well...about 4 weeks into ballet, AAA decided that she wanted some tap shoes. She talked about them ALL the time. Well by now Sunshine was here and I was sleep deprived and I was tired of hearing about the tap shoes. One night at dinner she said, "Everyone in my ballet class has tap shoes. I need some tap shoes." Well I couldn't believe that she flat-out lied to me about the tap shoes. Surely she was not trying to manipulate me into buying her some tap shoes! So I said, "AA, do not bring up the tap shoes again. You are taking BALLET. I know that everyone in your ballet class does NOT have a pair of tap shoes. Please drop it!"

Well about 6 weeks later, my friend told me that it was time to pay for their costumes. $75 for the ballet costume and $75 for the tap costume. I quickly replied, "Well AA just takes ballet, so just $75 for me." She said, "Tiffany, it's a ballet/tap class. They do ballet for 30 minutes and tap for 30 minutes." What?!? I wanted to die! My poor little girl had been tapping in her ballet shoes for almost 3 months! I wondered why her teacher hadn't called me so I quickly hung-up the phone with my friend and dialed the ballet studio. I spoke with her teacher and blamed the whole thing on Sunshine! Lack of sleep. yada yada yada. She said, "I asked AA why she didn't have tap shoes and she told me that her mommy said she wasn't going to buy her any and to not bring it up again." The ballet instructor NEVER laughed. As terrible as I felt about it, I still had to laugh. It was, after all... funny. However,I knelt down on my knees that day and looked AA in the eyes and apologized to her for not listening to her and not believing her. I asked her, "What did you do when everyone else was tapping in their tap shoes?" She just looked at me and said, "I tapped in my ballet shoes." What else was she supposed to do?!?!

The year just went downhill from there. By the time January rolled around, I was having to force her to go to ballet. We still had 5 more months of this. But I was locked in because of the small fortune I'd spent on the costumes.. the TWO costumes! May finally arrived but she did NOT want to dance in her recital. Of course I didn't give her a choice, but on the night of the recital, she said, "I'm so excited!" I knew it! I just knew she'd be excited when she put on her costume and matching feather head piece! I said, "I'm so happy that you're excited!" Well that little Disco Duck looked straight at me and said, "I'm excited because I never have to come back here again!" And after the embarrassment of being known there as the mom who refused to buy her little girl tap shoes, I was kind of excited, too!

Thanking God today for that little Disco Duck and for ALL little ones who so easily forgive their mommies! Maybe I'll do a little better the second time around!