Ballet bullies

I'm not sure why I should be surprised, but I'm constantly amazed at how thoughtless some people can be.

Last night I took Erika and her friend Hayley to watch one of their best friends dance the lead role of Clara in "The Nutcracker" in Little Falls.

It was a wonderful experience. You should have seen the girls' beaming faces as they watched their friend just light up the stage as she danced. While I don't know her friend that well, I was amazed at how well she danced. She made ballet look almost effortless, which of course, it isn't. The girls each bought her a rose to give her after the performance and then also made handmade cards for her at our house before the show. Her mom, who graciously gave us the tickets, said her daughter was so excited to have her friends there, watching her perform.

Anyway, a guy behind me during the performance listened to a football game via headphones the entire time, giving play-by-play information to the people he was with during breaks in the action and the intermission. (Quite loudly, I might add, since he had the stupid earpieces in and didn't realize he was talking louder than he should be.) What kind of role modeling does that provide for children when dad is more interested in listening to a football game than being "forced" to watch his child (likely a daughter since there were only 3 or 4 boys in the performance) dance in a performance she's probably been practicing for many months?? The women he was with seemed to find it pretty amusing, but I thought it was so sad.

After the play, Erika and Hayley (who sat a half-row away from me because, after all, I'm the mom and chauffeur!) were upset because some older girls seated behind them were making hurtful remarks about their friend as she danced.

They also said some older people wouldn't stop talking loudly during the entire performance, even though they tried the Minnesota Nice version of getting people to shut their pie holes by turning around to look at them, hoping they'd get the hint. They didn't.

On the way home we talked about how some people can be so rude and maybe in the case of those nasty girls, it's because they're jealous of her. I'm hoping the girls don't tell their friend about the rude ballet bullies because it will likely hurt her feelings and, after all, who cares what those girls think?

It bothers me when people display their own special kind of stupid like that in public. They should have been home watching television.