When will this ever be over?

Imagine that sentence loudly whispered in the silent gap between music, dance and applause. Nothing sotto about that voce. Reflexively, my hand clamped over my child's mouth, just for a second.

Imagine the squirmiest child ever trying to sit still for two and a half hours. The intermisison M and Ms did NOT help. Imagine my surprise.

Yes, we took our kids to the ballet.

For the first time.

But honestly? Not the last. Considering their ages and the length of the program and lack of Disney fairies, really, Sleeping Beauty: The Ballet went really well.

I had forgotten that at ballet performances there are five zillion solos, followed by five zillion preening poses as applause wafts toward said soloist. There is a lot of clapping. And waiting for something to happen.

Really, they stripped the plot of Sleeping Beauty down so thin you could see through it. But no matter. I wanted my kids to see a live performance of a non-kid performer. Some culchah.

My mom took my sister and I to the ballet and other related dance performances very frequently as children. We would get a loge at Place des Arts in Montreal, and sit up high and feel important and special. And in awe of whoever was hoofing it down on the beautiful stage.

So I wanted to give my kids that experience. Maybe I started them a bit young, but no matter. We all survived relatively unscathed (although there was a major meltdown in the car on the way home by the four year old. Couldn't really blame her. It took almost as long getting out of the damn parking garage as the whole second act.)

I wonder if we're up for the Nutcracker...