So today at work we finished off our long weekend celebratory events with a Jam Fest (nightmare that it was) and a movie night. This is after an entire weekend full of a carnival, a Beach Boys tribute concert (holy shit hot keyboard player and guitarist!), tractor rides, kids movie night, super bingo (don't ask), and a duckie race (ditto). Honestly, I am so tired that I am so happy that my job is done for the summer after tomorrow.
Anyways, the nightmare of a Jam Fest that happened today is what spurred this query that I have. But first, a little background.
Basically what this was was a three hour time slot where we had some people come in and "host" a pseudo concert where seasonal resident (and those there for the weekend) could come up and sign-up for time slots to perform their musical talents. This first started out that they could play an instrument, sing, or dance as long as it had to do with music but that soon wasn't the case and there were tears shed when people were told that they needed and instrument with them if they wanted to sing. Anywho, there were also mix-ups and the people who were hired to "host" actually ended up playing most of the three hours because people suck and no one really signed up to perform.
This leads to this kid who recently cut his Justin Bieber-like hair and looks absolutely horrible.
See, this kid is good at karaoke where the words are right there in front of him and he's able to blindly follow along. Everyone (read: grandparents, their friends, and his little girlfriend) think that this kid is going to be the next Kalan Porter (don't know who that is, do you? HA! Thus is my point.) so they all wanted him to sing at this Jam Fest. Well, since he wasn't allowed to just sing, he went crying around with his grandmother in order to find some poor person to prey on to accompany him in singing songs from Glee. Lucky for him my friend who was there and is an amazing pianist and is also a pushover so it didn't take much to get her to agree to play a song cold. Meaning sheet music was printed off in my office and given to her right then and there.
So this then leads to this kid and his gay-faced** drama that then happened.
Apparently there were 50 (greatly exaggerated) people who showed up just to watch this kid perform (whatever) but since in the beginning he wasn't able to they all went their own ways and then had to be rounded up like cattle later on in order to hear him sing. While all this was happening, he was taking a diva moment to himself leaving my friend to just sit there and wait all while she's doing him the favor of even being there. Half an hour later, this kid is finally ready to go on and I had to practically push him up there to begin with.
Needless to say, this kid should stick to karaoke. He sucked. He was flat, not on cue, and did not know the song that he wanted to sing. WTF man, if you're going to go through all that trouble, make sure that you know the damn melody.
After he was done and there was a roar of applause for him, he sulked off and started to pout because he sucked. He honestly almost started to cry right then and there.
Sure I have had my moments where I think that I sucked at something, but it never has led me to burst into tears because I forced myself to endure self-humiliation.
Now back to the point at hand. While the entourage of this kid was leaving the Jam Fest, they all obviously saw the show that he was putting on and made sure to let him know that he was 'amazing' and 'wonderful'. I, of course, later had to diplomatically find a way to say that he didn't suck without lying... I ended up having to lie on that one...
So the point that I'm trying to get to through all my long-windedness is; What are people thinking when they give into the public displays of emotion that children put forth in order to seek attention and why do parents tell their children that they're good at something when they're not? I mean, do we live in a world where we must lie to people all the time in order to make sure that they're all happy all the time with things that they aren't even any good at? Must we as a society raise people up just to set them up for the Simon Cowell's of the world to tell them the harsh reality and bring them plundering down from their false highs?
Sure with kids there is a fine line that is there. When they're really little and learning how to do things - like colour, ride a bike, read - you encourage them by telling them how good they're doing all while subtly letting them know how they can improve - colouring inside the lines, letting them know that 'ph' sounds like an 'f'. But as a child grows up and becomes an older almost teenager and beyond (like this kid was; he's got to be at least 12 or 13) must they still be babied for fear of damaging their developing psyche? Or, by doing so, are we causing more harm than good because 20 years down the road that kid will probably still be trying to sing in front of people with only a piano as accompaniment and won't have gotten any better.
Hello William Hung.
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