[The Duchess of Mint]

Dear Musicals.Net Posters,

I think that we can all agree that we don't want our kids exposed to certain influences (Ie: Drugs, sex offenders, excessive swearing), but that there's also a healthy limit to how much we should protect them.

Have you ever met a parent who flew off the handle about some "bad influence" which was really no big deal? What happened, and did the parent attack the "influential person" in a physical, or a legal, way?

By the way, I think that a cool premise for a new slasher flick would involve an angry parent who goes bonkers when their child receives "the wrong" type of gift for their birthday.

Thanks in advance for your replies.

[sopranodespair]

My mom hardly ever lets me go over to friends' houses. When she does, it's really hard for her. She's afriad that my friends' parents are going to rape me or something or that me and my friends are going to run around, asking for trouble.
I'm 15 years old. She complains about me being too shy and not growing up, but she hardly lets me do anything by myself, so my messed-up personality is her doing.

[Luc]

My friend played [insert name of woman who gets drunk here] in The Pajama Game at school a few years ago. Her mom tried to ban all future school productions because this is not something a 14 year-old should be exposed to (ya know, since she's never seen alcohol in her life, and she's not just playing a role in the show). She lost that battle for sure.

EPILOGUE: My friend now attends an all-girls Catholic boarding school in Rhode Island (faaaaar away from home), and her younger sister is currently seducing me in Dreamcoat nightly.

[Luc]

Same Mom as before- tried to ban Scholastic Book Orders (basically a flyer that all students get; we can order any books advertised for like 40% cheaper than at a book store- very awesome organization) because one of the books was The Golden Compass, which is about atheism (or something like atheism... I've never read it or seen the movie). Since it's a public school, Scholastics should respect all religions.
BULL. It's called literature.

[Monsieur D'Arque]

My parents didn't want me around people who committed tax and insurance fraud on almost every bill they payed. Oh well.

[mastachen]

When I was stage-dooring Spring Awakening, my mom wanted to leave cuz she was cold, but I didn't wanna leave. So she got mad and started screaming at me right then and there. I embarrassedly had to leave.

[Kiwi]

There are parents of kids at my school who complain about EVERYTHING. Our improv team was temporarily canceled because of one show we had that got a little out of hand. We had to look back on it and think to realize what there was in it that was so distasteful. Really, if you have a problem with something in our show, we have a little foul system so you can make your point without going straight to the administration and forcing them to take unnecessary action.
Also, last year when they did Millie, a parent complained about alcohol consumption on stage, so when they passed the flask down the line at the end of the Nuttycracker Suite no one could actually pretend to drink anything, they just took it and passed it along basically. Since then we've had to be careful about any alcohol we drink on stage. It's so dumb. We had drinking all through our junior high shows and no one said a word.
Slightly less impactful, but still pretty lame, a lot of parents wouldn't let their kids get cast jackets for Damn Yankees because it had damn on it. Lighten up people!
One small personal experience that just amused me to no end: I was playing shirt basketball with my friend Eric and this woman came up to me and said, "If your mother saw you doing that...!" What's funny about it though is that not two minutes ago her daughter and been doing the EXACT same thing

[mastachen]

Just out of curiosity, what's "shirt basketball?"

[Kiwi]

my friend was throwing pennies and trying to land them in my cleavage.

[mastachen]

Oh. lol

Will you be my friend?

[Beagle On Stage]

During my senior year of high school, a new family moved into town and the son, a sophomore, started attending my school. He likes theatre, so of course he joined our department, which is great. Unfortunately, he's extremely sheltered and he and his family are total prudes. They did not enjoy having me as president. They made no secret of it all year, but it really hit the fan at the end of the year ceremony.

We have a tradition at that ceremony of the four officers re-enacting the productions of the year in fifteen minutes, a la "The Complete Works of Shakespeare." We give it the overblown, irreverent tone of a Durang play, and it's always a hit. She disapproved, especially of me, and especially of my performance as Rizzo (including the phrases "Don't be such a bitch, Frenchy," "Let's go buy some tampons," and two cantaloupes stuffed inside a Pink Ladies jacket). Another hot issue was a segment based on our production of "The Diary of Adam and Eve," in which Adam and Eve decided to "have sex, whatever that is." She later compared this mockery of the marital act to "smearing feces on a Monet." By the end of the night, she had formally complained to the director, saying that she shouldn't be surprised that the evening turned out to be a "cheap, sexually-driven burlesque," because she knew I was in charge of the department. Within a week, she had written a letter to everyone but me in which she called me the Whore of Babylon, among other things. Of course I was notified immediately. The whole saga is too long of a story to tell here, but let's just say that she eventually regretted crossing my path. I will not be slandered.

[Tenalto]

....Heaven protect us from ridiculously zealous parents.

[shakalakababy]

wow, i can't believe how ridiculous some parents are. I'm glad i live in a hippy town. My musical that we performed this year had a whole song about drinking (well partying) we even had a keg. People thought it was hilarious. We've done lots of shows that had the f-word and all that too. But we figured after we got away with Baby with the Bathwater we could get away with anything.

[kiwiholly]

Wow, people really are insane, and allow themselves to be offended far too easily IMO.
I've never encountered anyone like that though, thankfully!

[Cake_in_Song]

My mother was happy that I finally had friends that were a bad influence. Actually, just that I finally had friends at all. I was kind of a creepy, straight-laced loner at the time. Except she's still not pleased about my "ex" (I don't know what to call him anymore), because he kind of destroyed my soul, and he's now like selling ritalin on the black market so he can afford to travel to out-of-town raves and dress up like a transvestite*. And yet I am still fully and completely in love with him, and if he ever decides to keep his promise about still being my friend and hanging out with me, I'll completely forgive him and do everything for him. I even offered to basically be his slave, and he then said he should probably just marry me after all, because if not, I'll end up in an abusive marriage. So, my mum doesn't really like him, but she puts up with it for my sake.
One of my friends has a psycho mom. She's in her early sixties, so I guess she's a bit more traditional, but still. My friend got grounded for a month because she left a plate in her room instead of bringing it upstairs. She thinks I'm smart, but I know she doesn't really like me. I'm way too liberal. And I am basically trying to make Olivia left-wing, so she's probably right to be scared. But she called me a "social misfit", and I'm quite offended by that.



*NOT AN EXAGGERATION. Sometimes I think I'm a lesbian, because he's always wearing women's clothes.

[Kiwi]