Motherhood & The Courage to Dance

My 14 year old son embarrasses when in front of a crowd unless he has a ball in his hand. Right now his school readies for the annual variety / talent show. Every year prior about fifteen kids from his group perform some silly dance. I've never been surprised that he wasn't a part of it since he is incredibly bashful. Getting up in front of a class for a speech sent him into almost vomit mode. I think it got to him even more because it doesn't bother me a whit to do it. I taught in public schools though and teenagers toughened me up.

He came to me one evening and said that he had a life decision. Good Lord, what on Earth could he be talking about? I actually felt fearful and nervous. Instead it was that the ring leader of his group, through text, asked him to be a part of this year's show. Whoa, that's all, thank you Lord. But I did agree that it was a huge step if he took it. In reality the consideration and not an outright "no" was a pretty big step. In his decision making he found a video to show me that they were thinking of mimicking. Uhh, it was dumb and I said so. But I also said that he should still think about doing it. You see he is the star athlete, I am not bragging I am simply stating a fact. He gets good if not great grades (all A's sometimes, A's & a few B's the rest of the time). Note: In our house a C might as well be an F, in today's schools just showing up pretty much gets you a C. Another day, another rant for another post. So taking all of that into account I told him that it would be very cool for the rest of the student body to see him entertain them by dancing. Yet I left it up to him, he needs to do stuff like this when he is ready.

Something that some in the family can't understand is that he will do a dance for Physical Education class. As he puts it "it's for a grade". Plus he seems proud of the dance that his group has put together. He got put with "the best dancer in school" which the kid can do flips and stuff so yeah he's good. Also he has one of the strongest personality girls in his group. It sounds like they discuss moves and steps, try them out, keep or toss them as a group. The teacher has had a preview of their dance and has asked to video it so that he can show it to future classes. I would love to see it too, hopefully he will let us copy it or put it on youtube.

I cant't expect him to automatically be something that he hasn't been, but discussing it with him, encouraging the decision making process, will see him through. He may be able dribble a ball on the gymansium floor, throw a perfect pitch on a baseball field, or run the ball through a host of tacklers on a football field; but he's not ready to dance for infront of the school in a variety show, and that's okay with me.