The Richmond's

Once again its a no go...

Thursday was picture night for Maddie at gymnastics. First of all let me say what an unorganized mess that was! They had us scheduled for 6:15 and told us to be there 15 minutes early. Ok, no problem if you are going to be running on time, but that wasn't the case in this situation. They had ONE photographer, yes ONE for MANY chilren and classes, tap, jazz, lyrical, gymnastics, clogging, individual pics, parents running around in chaos trying to make sure their little prince or princess looked just right. There were so many of us in crowded in this place it got really hot really quick and the windows even fogged up! We squeezed our way into the waiting spot and eventually got the chance to sit down. Maddie was a champ, she was playing with another lady who's grandson is in her gymnastics class and is also the mom of her gymnastics teacher. They were having a blast together. So as we were chatting I was watching the photographer who was clearly getting a little burnt out himself. For individual pics he basically put you where he wanted you and told you to smile..and for group pics there were many times that I heard him tell the older kids, if you aren't going to smile or look at the camera why am I taking pics? Hmmmm..ok...stressed are we? By the time Maddie's class was called it was 7:30....so.....you can imagine Maddie...she had been good for going on 2 hours waiting patiently, we take her over to get her individual pic taken and she flipped out. Instant crying, asking for Daddy, wanted nothing to do with me and she wouldn't sit on the star or whatever else they had for a pic. Instant fear tantrum mode. We tried to pull her aside and talk to her about it, thought she was going to do it for a split second but once again when we took her to get her pic done she flipped out. Ok, fine, I can take the single one on my own...so off to the group pic we went. She was fine getting her posed with all of her little friends but the minute she saw the photographer....instant crying once again. She wouldn't calm down, she wouldn't stop crying, she wouldn't stay put. Ok, silly me but I'm thinking seriously? You can't just stop crying for 2 seconds to get your pic taken? You really can't get over it for a brief moment? So of course I had some words with her telling her to just get over it and go take a pic so we could go home. Nope, not Miss Thang, not Drama Diva Maddie, you know Maddie, if she isn't going to do something she isn't going to do it, discussion over. So at this point, I'm tired, I've just waited almost 2 hours for nothing, and I grabbed my stuff and stomped off. I was embarrassed that she was acting like such a snit in front of all of those people, and disgusted that after all of this I was going to at least get a photo of her with her class. At this point Johnny was getting upset with me because I was upset with Maddie and he had been trying his best to get her to take a pic. All of the moms were trying to comfort me telling me that they remember their little ones doing the same thing at that age, take a deep breath, don't stress over it...all of the nice things you say to someone that is clearly about to scream. Her teacher assured me she would get a nice pic of them at the recital which is a nice gesture but at that time I am thinking, why bother? Should we even try to do the recital? How do I know little miss brat won't do the same thing at it? Her stubborness and emotions is something else. Yes, I called her a brat. She was being a brat...I know it wasn't nice to call her that but I call it like I see it, she was being a brat, bratty brat, brat. LOL!!! So.....if you were looking forward to getting some pics from gymnastics, scratch that thought. I am going to try to do one of my own of her in her costume and hopefully I will get one of her class either on a class night or at recital. Next year hopefully she will be old enough to understand and just do it..but I put some blame on the planner of the event too. Why did they have the older kids go first just because they were wearing wigs? Wouldn't logic tell you to let the little ones go first? I guess that would be too obvious.

Ok, that's my rant. =0)