Been to many such recitals in my time to watch our own offspring perform (one offspring only as Barman and I obviously have a very limited sex life ::) ) and the nub of the grump here (on my part anyway) is like yours I think that whilst I appauld the kids having the courage to stand on a stage and provide entertainment (of sorts) it seems you're not allowed to say which bits are crap and which aren't (even if they are your own kids!)
Remember a particular 'muscial' (use the word loosely here) event in which our fruit of the loins then aged about 8 was part of the cello recitial - it was appalling! Unfortunately for us the music teacher singled us out later that night to praise FOL's musical capabilities and Barman and I spoke honestly declaring that we hoped she would soon be over this particular fad and move onto something less torturous on the ear drums - could see from the facial response of the teacher we were then re-classed as 'parents without ambition'. . . . . .
Then of course you've got to participate in the additional parents comptetitive battle of
1) Making sure your FOL has got the biggest part so you've got best bragging rights on how dear little Petunia (name changed here to protect the inoccent) was soooooooooooooo suprised to get the lead, despite having sucked up to the drama teacher for the past twelve months and is now hated by all the other kids in the class
2) Sewing the best costume until the wee small hours of the night on a maximum of 24 hours notice, making sure that you appropriately dart and tuck the costume to bring best effect to the FOL and make all the other kids in the same costume look like the poor realtions of the set. Found myself adding a few unauthorised sequins here and there really wound them up a treat!
3) Who's able to buy the most raffle tickets at the end of the event
Mind you saying all that now that FOL is herself about to be married and in all probablity will be producing little bar grandchildren in the next few years for us to coo over I look forward to doing it all over again
