Jo H in the Daily Mail ..

[riverdancefan]

Any parent who stand in line for hours on end to support their children should be applauded! There are lots of parents too wrapped
up in their own lives to care what their kids are doing,and im pretty sure every child there is there because they want to be!!!
Quite an irritating read I thought.

Been there done that
Like all of us! I have or had no desire to live a life through DS I have no performing ability and never did, I'm not a frustrated singer reliving broken dreams through him, as I suspect none of us are . We support, pay for and encourage him because he is bloody good! He loves it and lives for it, I want happiness for him, nothing more.
And for him to be as successful as he can be.
Hell yes wouldn't it be easy if he wanted to just do karate once a week..... I would get some time to myself and maybe even a holiday !!
Wouldn't it be nice to have a positive article for a change and not a bog-take?

[beanie-bean]

I feel as if we have been tared with the same brush and I don't know why the artical makes a point about saying there's probably no children with MFH in the London Children's Ballet. I'm sure there are MFH in every walk of life, not just Musical Theatre!

[711sammie]

I saw a couple of MFH today at Shrek Casting.. Kids way to tall and mums arguing. One mum actually told her child to bend her legs when she got measured!!

[admin]

Can I just say that this site was ironically named as Jo knows.The person who originally set up this site was anything other than pushy. We at admin took it as a compliment that Jo mentioned us in her article and certainly many of the kids Jo has cast either have parents or personally use this site so we have known Jo and supported her castings for a very long time know.

However as in all walks of life there are always exceptions and these exceptions give all of us a bad name and unfortunately they also make good news. I wouldn't take offense at the article its all true and maybe someone who was thinking of bending the rules or jumping the queue will think twice now after reading this article!

[Genevieve]

i thought the article was great publicity for the site ! (where to look for auditions)
and the MFH examples were the extreme cases come across in the business, and we've all come across them at castings, where there's irritable parents, totally embarrassing their dc's, and not doing them any favours - as article mentions....when it comes down to it, they can base final casting decisions against those who have MFH ! words of warning isn't it !
...and can't believe a parent dressed their child up in different outfits trying to get to audition again and again ! that's more than cheeky ! and going off and buying same colour raffle tickets to audition quicker (reminds me of a clip from movie Beetlejuice- when Bettlejuice swapped his raffle ticket for a far far lower number and what happened to hi ?.his head shrunk!) schadenfraudes !

[riverdancefan]

There were very funny ( and true) elements in the article, I am in no way denying that.
HOWEVER
I feel that currently and actually for a while now, parents of performing kids have been the butt of overblown,salacious and exaggerated articles, which like it or not influences the public to believe we are all as bad as the MFH - type' mentioned and that in turn reflects on our children, some of the politest, generous and dedicated kids in the world.

We wouldn't make entertaining reading though would we? And the journalists would still spin any story like crazy

[irrelevant]

I thought it was a humorous set of anecdotes - and I dare say any of us who have had to deal with parents have met a few MFHs - I used to help at Cubs (and will be returning soon, to Beavers, now Tiddler is old enough) and met a fair few of them there - just because they paid £1.50 for us to entertain their kid for 90 mins they think nothing of turning up 20 mins late to pick them up, and then wonder why we were getting a bit tetchy...

In any case, the article led me here. As they say, no publicity is bad publicity.

[mathsmum]

well - having come across more than one mfh - and more than one dfh for that matter - my sympathies are still with jo

i have been put in a seriously unpleasant place by an mfh myself, simply as the mother of another actor

i also disappeared from this website, along with a number of others, some years back, when it all got too bitchy - a couple of us are back now - the others either have kids who've left the business or have decided not to return

my feelings were not at all hurt by the article - i know it ain't me - if you know it ain't you, what's the problem

[Nicola]

My feelings weren't hurt at all - I just think it was a series of cheap shots and mostly tired cliches - and that she should know better. As you say, most of us aren't like that so why focus on the minority when someone like her already knows the flack we often get as mums of performing kids?

And the arrogance of writing MFH on the top of a piece of paper when it's meant to be the kids that are being judged, and proudly admitting to it in the press, astounds me.

[mathsmum]

And the arrogance of writing MFH on the top of a piece of paper when it's meant to be the kids that are being judged, and proudly admitting to it in the press, astounds me.

sadly - there are mothers out there who are so hard to deal with that they do lose their kids work - even tho' jo says she wouldn't do that herself

[Nicola]

sadly - there are mothers out there who are so hard to deal with that they do lose their kids work - even tho' jo says she wouldn't do that herself

I believe you're right, but the vast majority of us bend over backwards, in often unreasonable circumstances, to ensure that casting people are kept as happy as physically possible - to write an article about MFH without making eminently clear what a tiny proportion this makes up is to tar us all with the same brush.

And Jo did say that she WOULD use this as a criteria IF the children were otherwise indistinguishable. So next time kids are turned away from one of her castings, it'll be one more thing for parents to concern themselves about - did THEY smile enough? Were they sufficiently over-enthusiastic / under-enthusiastic? Was it three letters written by their DD's name that meant they didn't get the role?!

[pg]

Nicola! How could you?
Cheap shots and tired cliches in the Daily Mail ??

For your delectation and delight:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eBT6OSr1TI

[Nicola]

That's brilliant, PG!!

[beanie-bean]

Love it PG!

[irrelevant]

Thanks for the link - fantastic! FB shared with my sister-in-law who seems to read the rag avidly and send us constant links to things she thinks are relevant to us(and which are usually tripe..)