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Okay. This week was a rough one,
and I mean capital R rough. Actually, it was only Saturday
that was troubling. It was one of those days that made me
question my priorities as a dance instructor versus my priorities as
a business person. Now, before
you make any cracks about the "almighty dollars" always winning, let
me tell you the story.
During stretching at the beginning
of one of my entry level classes, one of my students -- let's call
her Angel -- was clearly somewhere else. Now, it's not unusual
for the mind of a four-year-old to stray, but over the last few
months Angel has become increasingly disengaged. Angel's lack
of attention lasted throughout the class, so I decided that after
class I would speak with her mother.
After 10 minutes of waiting it
occurred to me that I hadn't seen Angel's mother in the studio in
some time. I must have looked frustrated, because a few
minutes later one of my office assistants mentioned that Angel's
mother is habitually late for pickup time -- often as much as an
hour beyond the end of Angel's single class. By that point my
break would be over and I would be well into my next class. So
this day I turned my next class over to my teaching assistant and
waited with Angel for her mother. We waited 30 minutes... 45
minutes... one hour... and finally, one hour and seven minutes after
the end of Angel's class, her mother arrived.
It wasn't so much an arrival as it
was a pit stop -- poking her head in the front door just enough to
say, "Let's go, Angel."
I asked Angel's mother to step
inside my office for a minute so we could chat. She was not
eager, but she agreed. I won't go through every detail of the
conversation, but I expressed concern about Angel's lack on interest
in dance. Was there something Angel didn't like about dance?
Something she didn't like about me? Something I could do to
better connect with her? I was reaching but I wasn't finding
anything to grasp onto. Then Angel's mother glanced at her
watch and gave me one of those I've-got-better-places-to-be looks.
That's when I stepped on the
landmine by asking Angel's mother if she knew that Angel's class
ended at 10:30. "BOOM!" Angel's mother stood up in an
instant and announced that she had had enough of my "inquisition."
With finger wagging she told me that she was paying me twice the
hourly rate that she pays Angel's daycare provider, that she would
pick her up when she pleased, and that as long as she was making her
tuition payments on time I shouldn't complain.
She left my office, grabbed her
daughter, and left the studio. I don't like confrontation, and
I try not to discuss personal issues within site or earshot of other
parents, so I didn't follow her. I just went to my next class.
But now I was the one whose mind was
somewhere else. The questions started coming...
Will Angel be back in class next
week? Does Angel even care about dance? Does Angel's
opinion matter to her mother?
Angel's mother sees me as just an
overpaid daycare provider. How many other parents see me that
way? Are they right? Should I care?
Should I be more concerned about
nurturing the dancer that I think lives inside all the little
Angels, or should I be more concerned about nurturing customers (and
my business -- my livelihood) by
trying harder to please all the Angels' parents?
Some days it can be very hard do
both at once, and Saturday was one of those days. |
Nurturing
Dancers or Nurturing Customers?
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