Dance moms and dads, please read...

This is the best parent letter I have ever read! I am so grateful for all that dance has given me and now I'm seeing what it is doing for my girls. Dance moms and dads: please read! -Shannon

"You start by taking your 3yr old daughter to dance class as something to fill an hour of her week and give her an outlet for her energy. She comes home from class and continues to dance around the house, wearing a few spare scarves from your closet or last year's princess costume from the dress up box-asking every day after "do I go to dance today?"

Next thing you know, you're complaining about hours spent driving back and forth to the studio, the later-than-you'd-like rehearsal (on a school night?!), times sitting and waiting at the studio when you have a million other places to be, and don't even get me started on the money-tuition, shoes, master classes, shoes, fundraisers, shoes. Did I mention shoes?

You fret and worry that a normal childhood is passing her by. She is not on the field hockey team, she is not a cheerleader. She's rarely at the dinner table because she has class almost every night of the week. Family vacations are planned around summer intensives. 

But before you know it, she's danced her last recital and discarded her last pair of shoes and it's all over too soon. When it is all over and she has left the stage for the last time, will you remember the hours, the money, the worry of the physical toll? My guess is "no". You will remember the gifts dance has given her: the ability to prioritize and multitask, a strong, flexible body, the ability to handle pressure and last minute changes, and an appreciation for music not currently heard on I Heart Radio. You will be grateful that you are sending your daughter out into the world with a strong work ethic and long attention span. You will have a great sense of peace knowing your daughter is part of a strong circle of young women equally capable of lifting one another up when the road is rough, as they are when celebrating one another's triumphs. In the end, you can pat yourself on the back because taking her to that first dance class 15 years ago was one of the best parenting decisions you have made."

"Dancing with the feet is one thing, but dancing with the heart is another." ~Author Unknown