Dance Mama.

Follow in your mother’s footsteps.

My mama was a dance mama. All the years I danced she was there doing all the things. Now she’s dance grandma doing all the things for my girl too.

I grew up around a bunch of dance mamas that were basically like my 2nd mom. I have lost a few to cancer over the years and as each one has passed my heart became so much more grateful for that time I had with them.

Need food…they would get it.

Help with homework before dance…done.

Advice on whatever it is…here you go.

Car rides to and from dance…off we go.

Make up and hair…done and done.

Forgot dance shoes…they had a spare.

Need a bun or hair tie…up it went.

Dance mamas hold a special place in my heart. Some of the people I was closest to were dance moms.

Today my dance instructor for more than 25 years in my life celebrated dance mamas at her studio.

In all the things she could have done she made a choice to celebrate us dance moms. She has spent countless hours trying to hold her studio, her livelihood and her everything.

She’s gives so much to all she is around.

And she chose to celebrate

Us moms…

We have been in quarantine.

We have been homeschooling.

We have been working from home.

We have been going to work because we are essential.

We have had kids dancing on virtual classes.

We have been cooking, cleaning and organizing.

We have been grocery shopping and Amazon. Enough said.

We have been checking on family.

We have been checking on friends.

We have been checking on our kids friends.

We have been checking on our church family.

We have been checking on our sports families.

And my God we have been Zooming probably more than we like.

We have cried.

We have thrown fits.

We have drank.

We have given way too much TV or iPad time to the kids.

We have napped or slept in.

We have watched more Netflix than we ever thought we would.

We have zoned out on TikTok or Instagram.

And much much more.

We have felt grief, guilt, happy, sad, angry, depressed, motivated, unmotivated, brave, anxious, emotional and numb.

We have felt our kids grief and emotions.

We have worried about it all.

We worry about the future.

We worry about our loved ones who are essential and at risk.

We have felt it all mamas.

Our kids and families have felt it all.

And the day before we are to celebrate our special day we long for being connected.

We want 2019 back so we can share this with our families, girlfriends and whoever we have in our life.

But 2020 is here and we are quarantined.

Even on our special day.

But today, I find myself a dance mama just like my mama was for me wanting to be there for others.

My dance director who is my daughter’s dance teacher celebrated all the dance mamas by giving us a little treat!

We had a dance mama car parade at the dance studio and passed out little bottles of alcohol for the mamas.

It was so nice to see mamas drive in with their kiddos and waving.

It meant so much to both sides. One to see how much they appreciate the gift and for the kids to see their teachers they miss so much.

It was so nice to spend sometime with people I have missed. It’s so hard not to hug and stay 6 feet apart.

Dance family is a special family.

Mamas we have been working so hard these 8 weeks of quarantine.

Be kind to yourself this weekend. Even if you only get a small chunk of time with everything going on. Give yourself that gift.

I’m exhausted. But I will do my best to enjoy tomorrow even if it’s not what we imagined it to be.

Be kind to your husband, partner, kids and others, they are going to try and do their best to make the best of it for you.

Cherish this one.