Few things are more devastating to a child than peeking out through the curtain before a school performance and seeing two empty seats where their parents were supposed to be.
The situation is equally heartbreaking for the parents who couldn't make that performance because they found themselves unable to leave work in time.
Grammy winning singer and talk show host Kelly Clarkson recently vented about this very issue with Kylie Kelce on the latter's podcast, Not Gonna Lie.
Clarkson, the first ever American Idol winner, shares two children with her ex-husband Brandon Blackstock, and Kelce is a mother of four who is currently expecting her fifth child.
Clarkson shared her frustration over school performances taking place during working hours:
"I don’t know when the school systems thought it would be a good plan for families and their emotional stability to start having performances at 10 a.m. during the week.”
“This just in: A lot of us work!"
Clarkson went on to vent about how parents often have little to no notice of these performances, preventing working parents from planning ahead in order to attend:
"And surprising you with it!"
"Not giving you an advance, so you can at least tell your work ‘Hey, I’m gonna need this morning off.”
“A lot of jobs wouldn’t let you do that anyway."
The three-time Grammy winner concluded the segment by expressing that young children don't always understand that parents don't control their schedules, resulting in parents tending to feel even worse about themselves when children notice their friend's parents were able to make the performance while their own parents couldn't:
"Our kids don’t understand, and we just look like assholes when we’re not there."
“Then they go, ‘Why was this mom there?’ And then you have to say, ‘Because that kid got a better mom.”
Clarkson's honest opinion on this issue was met with an evenly divided response from the podcast's Instagram followers, particularly those who were teachers and/or parents:
Many teachers pointed out how holding performances outside of school hours would also mean teachers working extra hours in the day, for which they wouldn't be paid, while also highlighting how criminally underpaid teachers are to begin with, and others pointing out getting children to and from school for performances after hours is challenging for many parents and students:
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Some parents could fully relate to the frustrations and inconveniences that morning school performances always tended to cause, with some teachers even joining in the commiserations:
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Being one of the most popular singers of all time, one can only imagine that Clarkson has had to miss many events due to her busy schedule, which has gotten busier now that she hosts a daily talk show that was recently renewed for its seventh season.
Clarkson should remember, however, that as frustrating as it must be for parents to rearrange their work schedules in order to catch their child's school performance, it's just as frustrating for teachers to work unpaid overtime—especially when most of them make less in a year than Clarkson makes in a single day.
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