<p>Do you miss it?<br>
I just opened the windows (thank you for small Ike favors, it’s cooler outside than inside)
And I just realized that someone on the block has a starting percussionist. Not just some random kid with a drum set - I recognize the exercise from years of hanging out with school bands.
Today I’m nostalgic. No more band competitions, showing up at football games just for half-time, running around finding reeds, chaperoning band trips, etc.
Today I’m nostalgic, tomorrow may depend on how often I hear the same cadences…
What about you?</p>
<p>I’m an old “band parent” in fact was president of the music parents organization for seven years. I still help out with one annual event, and both of my kids keep in touch with their band director. They visit every time they come home. I even go to a concert once a year. I have taken a pass on the parades, however! Of course, in my case, the music hasn’t ended…DS is a music major and DD still plays in her college orchestra as a non-major. The both practice when they come home. </p>
<p>Gotta say…I don’t miss the beginning instrument practice. At this point I enjoy hearing them play as well as they both do. </p>
<p>Don’t miss beginning trumpet or oboe…at all!!!</p>
<p>try beginning bassoon!
In all fairness, my parents put up with 2 beginning violinists - one of us totally unimpressed with the need to listen or pay attention to pitch or count.</p>
<p>dragonmom, you might have attracted more response if you had said “former” instead of “old”. No need to remind your feeble, decrepit compatriots of our advanced years . ;)</p>
<p>oboe, schmoboe. You haven’t heard nuttin till you’ve had to deal with the screech of beginning strings.</p>
<p>Old ? Let’s think former instead. But after 3 out of 4 of ours being in it, we still go to the HS football games to see the band :)</p>
<p>I graduated from high school six years ago (flag corps), and my little brother (trombone) graduated this past spring. My parents have still been going to the games, but my mom left during the fourth quarter last week to escape the traffic – she said that it was a little sad not to stay for the post-game band show, but at the same time, it was liberating.</p>
<p>Old (and former) band parent here. I was on staff as a woodwind instructor for our kids’ HS marching band. And, in fact, my h and I met in high school band! Two of three kids were in band and one of those did major in music and is a musician. Our other son is a high school english teacher and we enjoy going to football games with him and we really appreciate the band.</p>
<p>Another former band parent here. Hopefully son will pick it up his trumpet next year but this year he’s just going to the games to hang out with friends. I miss watching the games with my friends, and helping out, but I do not miss the driving to and fro and early morning band practices. That’s what I try to remember when I hear the familiar cadences.</p>
<p>I’m in Band Boosters. If any of you want to fly out and chaperone on one of the away game band buses, just let me know.</p>
<p>And we do have people stay in band boosters a year or more after their last kid has graduated, just to help out with special projects. It is addictive, isn’t it?:)</p>
<p>Another former band parent here. Eight years in a row between D (trumpet) and S (trombone). I’ll miss it more when the weather feels like fall; it’s high eighties and humid here…</p>
<p>I think band was the best thing that happened to my kids in HS. We had an extraordinary band leader (since snapped up by a much fancier, richer band nearer where he lives) who raised them to a high bar, and was a true mentor to them–character was as important as music.</p>
<p>I don’t miss the long car rides to competitions, or sitting through the football games (not that I ever watched the actual game much.)</p>
<p>Old orchestra parent here…and yes, over the last couple of weeks I’ve been wondering why I have so much more time that I used to in September…my Tuesday evenings are mine again (rehearsals) and better still, my Saturdays (we used to schlepp 140 miles ONE WAY for her violin lessons 
)</p>
<p>N0, I don’t miss it. At our school, the band boosters were living vicariously through their children’s activities and the other parents’ pocketbooks. There were some truly dedicated folks there, who put in long hours out of the goodness of their hearts and love for their children, but for most, this was their social life. The booster leadership, which went unchanged for a good 12 or 15 years (successive children allowed them to stay involved) became cronyism. New parents complained that they couldn’t get inside the circle. When we were given fund-raisers to do, we would quickly find out that the Boosters and their kids had already canvassed the area weeks before the project was released to the other kids. The same parents chose where the band went (Hawaii, NYC, etc), and chose who got to chaperone. The chaperones didn’t pay - the band kids were required to raise extra money to cover the parents. I chaperoned just once, to an in-state event. I was horrified that the chaperones did nothing. They went out partying after the kids were “put to bed.” I was the only one left on the hotel floor keeping kids in their own rooms. I sat in my PJs out in the hall half the night, watching as doors kept opening to see if I was still there. My S was embarrassed that I was playing “heavy”, and said that was a typical band trip.</p>
<p>I have to say that we live in a fairly well-to-do area, and we personally were spending a lot more on our childrens’ musical educations that most of the band kids (in fact, I’d be willing to say we were spending more than ALL of the band kids.) Being asked to pony-up over a thousand dollars annually simply for the pleasure of being IN band, then asked for at least another thousand to go on trips, meant my kid didn’t go on many. I finally reached a point where I told the band director we were out of money, and my kid wouldn’t be paying anything, and if they needed to remove him from band, I understood. He said kid could stay in band, but I received several nasty phone calls from booster leadership, until I called the band director and insisted they stop. One booster told me I “owed” the band because of my own kid’s success. I pointed out that if they spent half the money on private lessons that they spent on social events, the band would be better for it.</p>
<p>The above might sound hard. I actually believe we had a great music program in our school, and am grateful for it. I did try to support them by helping out with concessions, offering to chaperone, and making reasonable donations when I felt it was appropriate. I just got tired of subsidizing the Boosters vacations.</p>
<p>One year, the awards banquet at the end of the year consisted of about 30mintues of awarding things to students, and a good hour and a half of the boosters’ board awarding each other huge prizes. I think there was an outcry after that, because it didn’t happen the following year.</p>
<p>This is my last year as a band parent. I can say I am honestly looking forward to missing the drama associated w/our band director, but not the music or the kids. </p>
<p>Hopefully college level music will be more “mature”.</p>
<p>To the last two: I am sorry you had such experiences, particularly you, Binx. Are Music Parents Assoc. were angels–it was definitely about the kids, not the grown-ups.</p>
<p>Because we live in an unaffluent town, trips didn’t cost very much–no airplanes, never longer than a ten hour bus ride. In addition, a mimimal amount of time contribution by the kids to the two major fundraisers brought the price down more. The fundraisers, a fruit sale, and a band competition, were not hard to participate in for kids or parents (I ran Airgrams for 8 years.)</p>
<p>there were scholarships to the summer music program made available by the town’s music association.</p>
<p>For a relatively lower income area, we do take our music program seriously.</p>
<p>Current band booster here. All in all, our band is pretty well organized at the booster level; but it’s an incredible amount of work. I am amazed at how hard I work as a bandmom, far harder than I ever worked as a cheermom (now there’s a ‘vicarious’ group). I chaperone all events, primarily on the drumline/pit bus, which is, without a doubt, the wildest bus with plenty of interesting bus trip ‘traditions’. It’s a lot of fun…they’ve had the same bus driver for years and she’s very patient about all the noise. Also do a lot of work with various fundraisers…and I’ll take the drumline bus over a fundraiser any day.</p>
<p>I do have issues with our band, but not at the parent level. Fortunately the Booster Board is very inclusive and have created a gazillion leadership positions, some of which they have a hard time filling. And we don’t do expensive events. (binx…your group sounds like a nightmare!) But I do have issues which I will keep to myself until ldboy graduates. ;)</p>
<p>“oboe, schmoboe. You haven’t heard nuttin till you’ve had to deal with the screech of beginning strings”…</p>
<p>Ah, yes, much like the shower scene in “Psycho”…after years of sacrificing for D2’s violin and orchestra classes I finally have my Saturday mornings back! She is sticking with her french horn for now…</p>
<p>I am a Music Booster - called a “Mooster” in our small town. The nostalgia is still alive here, it is great when parents keep showing up to meetings and fundraisers long after their children have graduated. Better yet, some of the students come back after college and join the local Community Band…</p>
<p>Rachacha–we are fortunate to have a Community Youth Band as well as an adult one (we have a mandolin band, too.) S played in the Youth Band for tons of years, and many local kids come back even through hs to play in it; I think they have to be booted up to the adult band because they like the youth band so much.</p>