Reluctant Ballerina

The Bird has been practicing her ballet moves since she was big enough to walk. I thought the summer would be a good time to sign her up for an introductory ballet class, so I found a class that is one morning a week for five weeks. Now the Bird is a little stand-offish with new things. She is one of those children that gets so excited about the prospect, but once you arrive will cling to me. I knew the first class would be rocky. The young teachers were so sweet, but the Bird continued to cry and cling to me. I put her in the line, sat her on the dot, but she kept melting at the prospect of me leaving the room. Eventually I left and a few minutes later she was brought to me in tears. The director and I decided that perhaps a Mommy & Me class would be better and we would try that next week. We sat in the waiting area with other moms chit-chatting and I started to take the Bird's ballet shoes off and put her street shoes back on. She wailed, "no, I want to do ballet". We went to the restroom and I had a talk with her about the expectation that she would go alone and I knew she could do it or our other option was to leave and return the following week for the other class. She insisted she would go in and we said a tiny prayer for God to help the Bird to be brave. She went in and finished the class.