DAD DIARY: Grease is the word

Our kids are developing quite the taste for musicals and performance.
After having such a great time at the Castlebar Pantomime in January, they were treated to two musicals much closer to home in recent weeks.
And it couldn’t be much closer. We’re blessed in Dooega to have the fine facility that is Coláiste Acla, which is generously given to our local community group when required and its huge hall is host to our local drama productions, as well as performances by the Achill Musical Society and the Transition Year musical from Coláiste Pobail Acla.
So our crew were treated to Achill Musical Society’s production of ‘Calamity Jane’ and the TYs performance of ‘Grease’ only a few hundred yards up the road.
Frankie and Éamon really enjoyed the matinee showing of ‘Calamity Jane’, with exceptional singing provided by some very talented locals. Séimí loved watching some of his teachers from the naíonra on stage, but as the supply of sweets (a most vital accompaniment at such events) started to run out, so did his willingness to sit quietly.
You would always be conscious of others sitting nearby who want to actually watch the show and not be distracted by ‘Please can I have more sweets?’, so I took the decision to evacuate him to the nearby pub. The fact that Mayo against Armagh was throwing in around then was a useful bonus!
‘Grease’ was a nighttime production, and so up we went for the 7pm start in the knowledge they were up past bedtime. Always a risk!
The TYs were lucky in many respects – Grease is one of the best productions you could ever have with a wonderful soundtrack and a very entertaining storyline.
But they were absolutely amazing in bringing it to life. Their confidence and talent were immense. Some of them can go as far as they want to in terms of singing and acting.
Our kids were agog from start to finish. Well, Frankie and Éamon were. In the second half, Séimí started to get restless.
A mistake we often make as parents is asking what we think is a leading question, one where there ought to only be one answer only for the kids to undermine such thinking.
“Do you want to stay here or go home?” I asked, expecting he would say he wanted to stay and so I could follow up by telling him he needed to be quiet.
“I want to go home,” he replied forcefully. The thing was, I didn’t, so I spent the last 20 minutes at the back of the hall where he was out of earshot of any other audience members, walking over and back with him on my shoulders, a compromise he was willing to make!
Frankie and Éamon have been singing and dancing to ‘Grease’ ever since and they were so consumed by it on the Friday that we went them up again with their auntie. Séimí was kept at home though. Sure hadn’t he requested as much the previous night?

•   In his long-running fortnightly column, Edwin McGreal charts the ups and downs of the biggest wake-up call of his life: Parenthood.