I just got back from my little brother's concert. He's in fourth grade, and he plays the bass. The concert consisted of about fifty fourth graders who are in the strings program. They are first year students as far as the strings go, and you can imagine how they sound.
I got there at 7pm, just as they started doing the various solos. I hear the first one, some girl playing part of a song. Her solo was no more than 15 seconds before everyone clapped (for another 15 seconds) and she sat down. I thought to myself, "Nice, this will be over soon". Then I noticed that pretty much every fucking little kid was going to play a solo. Some more than once.
What the fuck, I don't care about Jimmy or Susy, let all the kids play and I can watch my brother play, who I came to see. Not Sally and Hundo.
Sigh.. and if you saw the "Sixth Sense" you would remember the scenes of the kid who sees dead people in the school play, and every parent had a video camera. Only now do I realize that is TOTALLY TRUE. (No, Wilson, I did not have my camera with me)
With single parents, both parents have cameras. It is just insane.