• Feis Mom:
• 04 December 2013

Why We Feis

In this post I look at my top answers to the question every Irish dance parent asks at some point in feising: Why do we do this?

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I just returned from Grand Rapids, Michigan where we attended the Mid America Oireachtas. It’s always a chaotic weekend filled with delays, stress and practice sessions but it’s also fun. This year my daughter missed qualifying for solos by one dance but was on a ceili team so we were only there for about 24 hours. In that time we managed to see several friends and got to “catch up”.  Most of the conversation were light and positive however, there were a few times when the phrase “Why do we do this?” was uttered in frustration. I’ve been there myself and on a long drive home I came up with my top 5 answers to the question: Why do we feis?

1. We feis because our children are Irish dancers who want to compete and succeed in their chosen sport.

2. We feis to support our kids – act as their cheerleaders and crying towels.

3. We feis because deep down we enjoy it. As parents we get satisfaction out of watching our children dance and interact with their friends and share in their victories.

4. We feis because of the friends we’ve made at our school and those we’ve met along the way. No one understands what feising is all about better than another feis parent and if you’re a social media butterfly it’s fun to cheer your friends on vicariously when your family isn’t at a feis.

5. We feis because the competition can lead us to places we wouldn’t otherwise travel. We turned a trip to Louisville, Kentucky into a fabulous Father’s Day weekend. Louisville wasn’t on our radar so we would not have gone there without the feis and we are looking to returning some day.

Feising is a big source of stress for the parents and most importantly the dancer and it can become frustrating. When those times hit me I have to remind myself that she’s 11 and will probably only be doing this for a few more precious years before she’s off to college or on to something else. (Sniff) Why not make the most of these years? It’s a tremendous bonding experience and one that I hope my daughter will look back on fondly when she’s older – taking the good with the bad – and be glad that we feised.

Til next time – Slainte!

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