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Transition from Fan to Parent


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Blue Devils play Taylor Swift, now confirmed.

 

/s

 

Seriously though, congrats to your whole family! I'm really curious to hear your experience of this summer come late August.

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Now you can't say all that - and not tell us which corps your kid is in! 

Loved your post, by the way because this activity depends on kids like yours.  Otherwise, it wouldn't exist.  I hope you and yours have a wonderful 2017 drum corps season!  Go Fight Win - yea MikeN's team!

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Last year was my transition year ... and the biggest surprise was how I attended contests.  As a fan, my butt was in the seat for every corps.  As a parent, I'm heading out to the lot as soon as my kid is done performing.  Of course, this wasn't true at finals :).  The activity became much more like what I was used to with my kids being in marching band.  In a way, it made me appreciate the activity more.  As a fan, I almost thought of the corps members as "professionals" but now I see them for who they are.  I now make it a point to give every corps a standing ovation since I really understand all the work that goes into it.  Enjoy your first year as a DCI parent ... it was a dream come true of me (and I guess my child) and I can't wait for "our" sophomore year.

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57 minutes ago, MikeN said:

So as of last week, after 28 years I am no longer a DCI Fan.  I am officially a DCI Parent.  <applause> :thumbs-up: 

That said, as we've gotten closer and closer, with callbacks and video assignments and camps and talking about drum corps EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. for 18 months, I've found that my perspective on this season - and DCI - had changed quite a bit.  Really, without me even noticing until now.

First, I could give a flying ... leap... about the other 40+ corps in DCI this year.  So what if the Cadets are coming out in hot pink?  BD playing Taylor Swift in their drum feature?  Madison's relocation to Tulsa?  No big deal.  I'm sure it's all great, but I'll be honest - all I care about is my kiddo and how they're doing, how they place and how they feel about their corps.  I probably will be one of those parents in the stands for only one corps, to tell the truth, even if they are likely to be near the front of every show.  Sorry, fans who don't like transient crowds - sure I'd like to see the Cavaliers live when they go undefeated and stomp everyone this year, but I'd like even more to see the kiddo and hear how they felt their run was.

Second, and probably much more significant, I'm suddenly very amazingly more tolerant of DCI's recent creative explosion.  As they say, it's all fun and games until it happens to you.  (Or is it until someone loses an ear?)  My kiddo is going to be doing some fairly novel stuff in an avant-garde way, and I couldn't be happier.  Because this year of DCI was made for them - this is theirs and nobody else's.  You had your La Fiesta and Candide and Medea and Bjork and even your Justin Bieber, but now it's my kid's turn.  To be brutally honest, as of now my kid's version of DCI is more important to them (and me) than your DCI.

So best of luck, other corps, even if I'm only watching with half an eye and listening with half my brain.  My focus is on one group of kids - one kid - and what I already know is going to be the best summer of DCI ever.  :cheer:

Mike

 

Ok... let's make this an actual discussion instead of some kind of a narcissistic blog post - parents, what did you find changed for you when you made the same switch from fan to parent?

Rooting for a particular corps.  (I just enjoyed the shows previously -- thought cheerleading for a specific corps was dumb!)

Leaving the stands after she performed.  (Never did that before but face time suddenly became very precious!) 

When I knew I couldn't be at a show,   sometimes DCP friends  would surprise her at shows!  I would always ask to arrange to ship a care package to their house and they would always refuse and instead would ask "what does she like?"   That was a little shocking for me -- but  it sure was pretty cool.   Heck Plan9 (arch "enemy" on DCP) yelled out her name at a show (in Alabama maybe?) and she asked me about it on the post-show phone call!! 

Spending all of finals week at the corps practice site!  

Taking her (and her friends) out for "real" food.  (you've never seen food disappear like that).

Late night post-show phone calls.  

and a MILLION other little things :-)  

Man those summers ZOOMED by :-) 

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1 hour ago, MikeN said:

So best of luck, other corps, even if I'm only watching with half an eye and listening with half my brain.  My focus is on one group of kids - one kid - and what I already know is going to be the best summer of DCI ever.  :cheer:

I think it will be interesting for you to revisit this topic in 10 or 20 years.

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10 minutes ago, Terri Schehr said:

I learned very quickly to turn a deaf ear to people who were critical of your child's corps.  It was tough but you can't go around clocking people. JK ;-)  Best of luck! 

well...i agree you can't choke all of them.... :colgate: 

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