Safa means tranquil, serene, calm…I try

For those of you who don’t know - and if you don’t have young children or relatives, you may not, Diego is the cousin of Dora the Ex.plorer. My son loves Diego. Last Sunday I took him to see Diego Live. There were a few things that I wanted to mention about that excursion. These live shows for children are very relaxed and audience participation is encouraged. Children are encouraged to sing along, jump up and down and also do a call-refrain with the cast when warranted. My son can be somewhat reserved. If we had been sitting in the front rows, he probably would have been very active. We had great seats in the lower balcony level. We were right center, front and a little raised from the stage. Anyway, he would always look around at the other kids before he would get up and dance or whatever. Here’s what disturbed me as I sat there watching other families: if your child does not want to participate, this is not a reason to chastise! I saw mothers getting angry at their little ones because they didn’t want to jump up and down hootin’ and hollerin’. Dude, you purchased the ticket for them to see the show. Chill out. I felt so bad for those kids. On the other hand, it was pretty annoying watching parents more into the show than their children. For real, when Diego asks “you” to jump up and say “Rescue Pack” or “roar like baby jaguar”…they are really speaking to YOUR CHILDREN! It was so embarrasing. The other thing…

Do not buy tickets in the nose-bleed section if you plan on bringing your big aunt Essie. There were at least 3 families who really made me cringe. When the usher would point in the direction UP the stairs where they were to sit, people got attitudes! One lady almost cussed out her relative and loudy said, “all these damn stairs!”. It was very painful watching certain people take 15 minutes to walk up a flight of stairs! Some were leaning so heavily on the thin bannister I thought it would break.

Oh, and I felt like I could guess which families got their taxes back by the amount of crap they purchased. Now don’t get me wrong - I definitely bought my son a tee-shirt and one of those annoying light things where you push a button and Diego would spin around inside the bulb…aside…I paid $15 for it and my toddler threw it across the room in anger when J tried to take it back. We were in the house 3 minutes and it broke! Anyway, there were people who purchased waaaaayyy too much stuff, including candy, soda, etc. I mean really. I was digging those prepared families who packed granola bars and juice boxes:)

Finally, on t.v. Diego is about 8. Now I understand that it may be difficult to get an 8 year-old performer. However, should the stage version of Diego look 35???? Dora even made an appearance and she looked about 35! My son was not feeling that LOL!.

My dilemma….the Backyardigans will be there in June…I like them….I may have to leave my son home and put on my dancing shoes!