Oh gracious. It must be time for me to get snippy about parents. Again. Argh.

So I have these two students, and one of them, who has been coming in coughing and sick for the last couple of weeks, comes in AGAIN coughing like a lung is about to pop out. I'm thinking, "Great. What am I supposed to do?" So I tell her that we'll try some gentle warmups but if it doesn't sound safe for her to sing, we'll just do some more learning about composers and listening, like we did last week (when her parents sent her to her lesson at the very beginning of a cold, when it's still pretty contagious.....thanks). She says, "We did that last week and Mom says that's a waste of her money."

Seriously? You send me an infected child to breathe on me for thirty minutes, rather than just calling that morning to tell me she's sick, when I've made it clear that I won't charge for canceling at the last minute if that happens? Really? And I'm wasting your money by educating your kid about composers? Seriously? (But I do love this kid...she's hilarious.)

It gets better.

Then, she leaves and the next one comes in, and I remind her that this is the last lesson she's paid for, so she should let me know if she plans to continue (she had been using a Christmas gift certificate). She says, "No. My Mom wanted me to tell you that she thinks your lessons are too much money and they're not worth it."

Yep. That happened.

First of all, there are high school students here, teaching beginning piano lessons, that charge as much or more than me. I make an effort to be affordable. Secondly, why teach your kids to be rude like that? Why not just have them say, "No, thank you" without the personal comment?

Plus, when did art get to be unimportant? Art is not an extra. Art is what makes us human beings. Art is vitally important, not to mention all of the time and money I've put into being a musician and teacher. Are we going to just negate all of that because it doesn't bring in a lot of money and doesn't provide dental insurance? REALLY?

Ugh. Way to teach your kids that their goal in the life should be to make a lot of money. I am so glad that my parents didn't do that to me. They would've been screwed, but still...I don't like to be too disappointing. Maybe develop your kids' souls a little instead of always looking at the bottom line. Maybe a little less American Idol and a little more live string quartet action.

I don't know. I don't have kids. But if I did, their butts would be sitting on a piano bench, starting at age three, whether they liked it or not. The end.