Wow. Its too bad some parents are like this. I think I would have handled it the same way with a 7 yr old. However, my daughter dances competitively and experienced something similar at a dance convention when she was 9. She learned choreography and performed a jazz dance combination with over 100 other dancers in her age group and won 1st prize and a $300.00 scholarship. A parent of a friend later grabbed her arm in class while she was stretching out, told her that she knew she did not attend every class that weekend and would tell the judges in an attempt to get her disqualified. However, it was not required to attend every class to audition and win the scholarship... So she did not get anywhere with that.
Can you believe a parent actually got physical with my daughter over this??? I did explain in detail to my dd that the other parent's actions were wrong, why they were wrong, and what I felt an appropriate response and way of handling a situation such as this would be. I did not confront the other parent- but I did report her actions to the competition and studio owner. It seems I did not have to do this because others who were watching were shocked and had already reported the incident.
It is amazing how low some parents can sink regarding kid's activities....
I always remind my dd now in dance that she should not be intimidated by this type of stuff. Just as there is always someone better than you- you are always going to be better than someone else. The only way to eliminate unreasonable jealousy from these type of individuals is by purposely doing worse. However the problem would still exists... because you would still be better than someone out there... so keep doing your best because you can't change how people act.
Moral of story- do your best, be kind to others, and let the chips fall where they may..
