Monday, September 17, 2007

To Rock Or Not To Rock?

5th Grade Band. *shudder*

My son TJ is very interested in doing this. Me? Not so much. It means he goes to the local middle school early in the am, and my other child waits for the school bus alone, and I'm not sure I'm ready for her to do that. And it also means renting an instrument, listening to him practice, committing to a practice schedule when I'd rather not have any more commitments.

(And now for the true, really selfish reason)
I have avoided band, and all that band is, for my whole life and I don't want to encourage it for my son. Drums- yes. Guitar- awesome. Those are instruments that rock. Piano makes me happy, too. But they are not options for 5th graders. Whatever.

I couldn't get into the whole marching band scene when I was a kid and I still can't. I can't think of a single time that I ever had a crush on or close friendship with someone who spit in a tube and made it squeak for several hours a day. (Okay, maybe once, but it was short-lived.)

I don't mean to offend all you musicians out there- you have made the world a better place. Some of my favorite songs have some-other-random-instrument-that-I-can't-identify playing in the background. I think. I can't recall a specific example, but I'm sure that at least one of my favorite songs has a banjo or a flute or something tooting back there. But I can't help it- I'm much more likely to encourage my kids to strum a ballad, crash the symbols, or sing their guts out.

So what do I do? Do I go along with it and secretly loathe it? Or do I tell him how much I think band is lame and then he'll start thinking that, too? And have I just offended everybody out there who plays the clarinet and used to like me???

Catch me if you can-
~AJ

PS- I know you all want to know all about my trip to MA, and all about the Son-Rise program, and I will update soon with lots of pics. Hold your breath!!!

Edited to add: I'm suprised how many of you thought this was completely serious and have advised me that I could be permanently damaging TJ if I don't let him "follow his heart." Lighten up, people! And guess what- He lost interest before we even had the chance to sit down and talk about it. I know my kid.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was in band in middle school and I did enjoy it. But once high school came along I quickly dropped band b/c I didn't want to be a "band geek'. (I played the baritone)

I don't really want my kids to get invloved with band either but hey...I guess i shouldn't hold them from it if they REALLy want to do it.

You never know...he my HATe it. ;)

Tambi Lane said...
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