bumbershoot
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2007
- Messages
- 69,750
The low number of people saying things really stood out to me. What about the OTHER girls in the ballet class, or out with them at recess? Only 3 kids have been mentioned; how many were there that didn't make those comments?
I'd focus on those, not the ones who both feel that it's not for them and also want to change others' opinions.
Funny, right at this exact moment my son came in telling me he had a dream that his friends at the Y were teasing him for taking ballet. He LOVES dance, and is actually in the dance company at the Y now, so it doesn't make him want to quit or be quiet about dancing, but it sure does make him annoyed at the other boys. (we homeschool so he doesn't get the peer pressure at school, but we're at the Y pretty much every week day)
He was teased pretty hard last year by the brother of two girls in his class, and we simply focused on how he could talk with the teasers. Fortunately there are many men who take ballet who are also well known, like many football players, etc, to point out, because with this sort of teasing it's the perceived manliness that's in question. DH took DS to ballet twice during the heavy teasing time and chatted with DS, in front of the brother and his dad, about all of those athletes who took dance, and it ended.
Not sure what you could take away from this to help with your daughter, but I feel that it was the talking with DS that helped the most. It was my son's feelings that were getting hurt, and he was getting confused because this is something he LOVES, and he wishes that other boys would love it too (he's one of only two boys in the dance company and he's getting slightly tired of the attention). He just needed some emotional shoring up, some reminding that he knows why he loves dancing and it simply doesn't matter what some other boy thinks.
