Posts Categorized: Parents

F. E. I. S. – First Everyone Is Safe

Posted by What The Feis & filed under ID Trending, Parents, Safety.

After my post from Monday, I was amazed to find that that type occurrence is more common than most of us think, and I was glad to hear that people had ideas on how to help reduce the potential of incidents like that from happening again. There were posts of Facebook, Voy and this blog, and probably others.

I would like to keep the momentum we had on Monday and Tuesday going, and want to gather those ideas to present them to whatever dance governing bodies will listen. My goal is to capture them here, in one place, instead of having to go to multiple websites to find them, and hope to keep them to just the ideas (and not any background stories) so that readers can scan them quickly. read more

Parents & Dancers PLEASE Read

Posted by What The Feis & filed under ID Trending, Parents, Related, Safety.

At the McMenamin Academy Feis in Milwaukee this weekend, I witnessed a rather disturbing event that I thought would never happen at a feis. I suggest all parents and dancers read this, and share with anyone you think needs to read it…. I suggest all parents, with or without dancers.

*****

NOTE: Please see the comments below this post and on our FB page. This is not the only time ‘creepy’ has invaded our feiseanna.

I have added a second post to capture ideas to be presented to governing bodies on ways to make feiseanna safer. Please also visit that if you have suggestions. read more

Dancer Nicknames

Posted by What The Feis & filed under Humor, Parents, Related.

I have a feis-free weekend so I decided to write that blog post I have had on the back-burner.

When my daughter started competing, she danced against the same people over and over again, and we began to recognize the girls (and an occasional boy) from feis to feis and year to year, but had no idea what their names were. We started to ‘label’ the other dancers so we could identify them. None of them mean spirited, although I guess some may sound that way if you didn’t know the story behind them, they were just a way for us to be able to talk about things like ”nickname has really nice kicks” or “nickname got a new dress” or whatever, until we eventually learned the dancers real names. read more

New friends from Pittsburgh…

Posted by What The Feis & filed under Gem City Feis, Parents.

And speaking of the Gem City Feis, I met another nice family yesterday. I mentioned in another post that I find it very refreshing to see dancers who excel, but don’t get all ‘diva’ even though they are kicking butt, because I have seen quite a lot of that in the past. Met another such dancer and family.

First saw this dancer in Pittsburgh last week and got a chance to meet the Mom and Dad yesterday. Because of the uniqueness of the dancers name, I won’t mention it, but if they find this blog, I think they will know who they are. read more

And speaking of the Great Lakes Feis

Posted by What The Feis & filed under Great Lakes Feis, Parents, Related.

Remember Rachel from MI at the Dayton Feis, well she was was there again, dancing against my daughter. Thankfully she got the last dance she needed to move up to Prelim, and she didn’t beat my daughter every time this time ;)  Sorry, I was nice the last time, I am going to be a normal Dad this time :)

Whoever told Rachel’s Mom I posted the last post, don’t tell her about this one ;)

Watching her grow… a haiku

Posted by What The Feis & filed under Parents.

OK, so now you get to see the softer side of WTF. A haiku describing the changes I have seen in my daughter because of Irish dance.

clumsy, like a fawn
but feis after feis she grows
like a doe, graceful

and if for some reason I have broken some haiku structure rule, tough, I’m still going to call it a haiku.

T-Shirt Idea

Posted by What The Feis & filed under Ideas, Parents.

I always say I drive and pay, that’s my job as a dance dad. With that came this idea that I am thinking of making into a t-shirt. What do you think?

Being an Irish Dance Dad….

Posted by What The Feis & filed under Parents, Related.

I often feel like I am only there to drive and pay, but tonight, I had the chance to use some of my Navy training to help my little ‘dancing queen.’

The toes on her hard shoes had no black left on them, so I broke out my shoe shine kit and spent a half an hour on them. I did not do them like I would have back in the day, when I could spit shine shoes and make them shine like mirrors, but I blackened them and gave them a bit of a shine. You really cant see it because of the flash, but its there. My shining ability was a source of pride for me back then (I was actually accused of wearing patent leather shoes for inspections), and to be able to share some of that with my daughter made me happy, but I digress… read more

Awkward…..

Posted by What The Feis & filed under Parents, Related.

So this morning after church, we went to a local Mom and Pop place for breakfast.  As we sat waiting for our food,  I recognized one of the gentlemen at the front door of the restaurant.

That is a feis dad,  I thought to myself.  The GC thought she recognized him too.  We are at a small place in the middle of nowhere, no Irish Dance schools for literally miles,  and yet, there are other dance parents a few tables away.

So, after I ate,  I stopped by their table to say hi.  The man had reconized me also so we made quick small talk. ‘What school’ I asked,  and here comes the awkward part… read more