There's a lot of fun things that go on during a Beginning Skating Class. I wouldn't call it a circus, but it's certainly more fun than Senior Hour at Perkins.
K shared a Pre-Alpha class with a cute little Asian girl. She, her little sister and her parents would come every Saturday, and like it or not that poor girl was forced to skate. She would drag herself around the ice during warmups, shuffling her feet and holding our her arms whenever she looked to mom for rescue. Mom had no intention of rescuing this kid. Mom, for her part, was the endless cheerleader. She would follow along the boards as her daughter passed by, flapping her arms and shouting encouragement. When the little girl would hang on the boards and cry, mom would make pushing motions at her, "go skate!"
The coaches would inevitably take over and give the lesson, as mom was clearly not going to take her daughter off the ice. And this poor girl would shuffle and skate, doing it only because mom and dad would not shut up. Little sister, who did not skate, took more than one header down the cement stairs from being ignored.
Me, I was just drinking my coffee.
At one point we saw them at Public Skate, giving us a repeat performance without the benefit of a class or coaches. Mom was at the door, pushing the immovable object onto the ice as she wailed and cried. Dad was holding Little Sister (who looked like she wanted to skate) and coaxing as hard as mom was. I was skating that night, and so I brought her out with me. Mom and Dad were very thankful, but it was clear that this kid didn't want to skate at all.
K ignored the entire proceeding, rolling his eyes whenever he did glance over, as I encouraged the girl to dip and skate.
I haven't seen them lately, and I have to say that I kind of miss the weekly waterworks and arm flapping up and down the stands. Nothing like a wailing kid and birdmom to make the Saturday mornings fun and colorful. The younger sibling diving down the stairs was just a bonus prize to the entire affair.
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