1.5 yrs of ushering, and i’ve never really felt so much for or against a patron, but this one really takes the cake…was ushering @ a ballet school’s concert, wun say where..u ppl can ask me.. the concert ran for 3 shows, sat evening, sun afternoon and evening, and i was already pre-warned about troublesome parents that made some ushers cry.. so i approached today’s afternoon and evening show with a fair bit of caution…

Being a private ballet school makes it eligible to be a bloodsucker i guess…ticket prices range from 15 to 50 bucks i think, none of my business actually… the show’s divided into 2 halves, with an intermission in between.. The problem comes when the gals dancing in the 1st half of the show gets released, and their parents who bought tickets to watch them perform can collect them n take them home, but mostly they would wanaa bring the gals in to watch the 2nd half.. However, due to the organisers, we didnt let them in w/o a ticket.. which is actually in line with our own policy.. no entry, even for crew/performers unless they have a ticket or on official business (this rule can be bent sometimes, like when the house is not full, and the patron comes to talk to us nicely..we can try to arrange, but it’s definitely not the norm) So well as u expect, parents were complaining but most of them chose to bring their gals home, or buy tickets for them, or leave them in the holding room where the teachers would take care of the gals while the parents can finish watching the show..

Afternoon show passed w/o much incident.. @ intermission for the evening show, the trouble began.. This man came up to me and asked y he can’t bring his daughter in w/o a ticket, n i gave him the standard ans, that this is a ticketed event and the organisers want us to enforce this rule, we have no choice, even though that there are empty seats in the house…. so he went on talking, very calmly about his daughter having spent so much time on rehearsal and now cannot watch the concert..n he intends to write to Straits Times Forum to complain about the venue and the organisers..even got my name, then he returned to his seat…

then i tot, siao liao, get complained nvm..complain to a crap paper… decided to alleviate the problem by asking if he wanna email my boss directly or fill up a feedback form..gave him a form and my boss’ namecard…ok end of story, i tot.. but halfway thru the 2nd half, i got a msg from my colleague @ the door, saying that this little gal who was performing in 1st half wants to find her father, just nice it’s the mr ng… so i went to him n told him that his daughter’s outside and tearing.. his face was VERY VERY calm and he asked me, “so can i bring her in now?”

I replied, “Mr Ng, you know our policy and the reason behind it.. u noe i can’t let u bring her in”

He said this:

Well then u all can take care of her for me

n carried on watching the concert..i tell u i had no idea how to react to that, and decided to go out to talk to the gal and her teacher who brought her down…the moment i saw her, my heart melted…sweet looking gal, about 6-7 yrs old..looks ready to cry liaoz… no way i can tell her that her dad , not knowing that someone’s with her daughter actually, just calmly refused to come out to meet her…how would u wanna tell her that….so in front of her and the teacher, i told them that i couldn’t find her dad, that he’s not @ his seat.. when they started to walk away to go back to the holding room, not b4 telling me to try to find her dad cos the gal (vanessa) is sad that nobody came to pick her up…then i got my colleague to talk to and distract vanessa so that i can tell the teacher the truth… Eventually she brought vanessa back up to the room…and best part, i had to go back in to tell Mr Ng that vanessa’s being taken care of, and he just quietly nodded ok..

How fucked up can a father be… to react this way to his child in distress…wanna complain/feedback to straits times or my venue, go ahead..wanna complain me, go ahead..but WHY THE FUCKING HELL DO U NEED TO MAKE UR DAUGHTER GO THRU THIS KIND OF FUCKING SHIT WITH U???? Whatever god u believed in gave u a dick to reproduce and take care of ur young so that he/she would grow up to be good ppl… AND U FUCKING MAKE VANESSA SUFFER FOR NOTHING… I HOPE U DUN HAVE ANY MORE KIDS, DO US A FAVOUR AND CASTRATE URSELF PLS

Was talking to my fren who worked the sat evening show, they had a problem with this mum who insisted on bringing her daughter in, incidentally called vanessa as well (!!)..when told that she can’t go in..mum told vanessa in loud voice ,”See they dun let u in!” and vanessa started crying..cos of this 3 of the ushers got really affected by it n were tearing too…the lady said tml (sunday) her husband coming (!!! yet another clue)

This is my take on what caused all these:

1. Mum tried to bring vanessa in but failed, purposely made her cry to try to make us give in… or vanessa was told to cry when her mum “scolded” her
2. It failed, so today dad tried to get vanessa in…told me that he didn’t noe initially that the kids need tickets as well, i noe now he’s bullshitting me cos his wife was here yesterday
3. He could have smsed his wife, to tell her to call the teacher to get vanessa down to look for dad.. vanessa could be in the equation as well, innocently agreeing to her parents’ plan…i mean, who else can u trust if u can’t trust ur parents…hence parents must be rite.. “vanessa u must cry when mummy or daddy says so, if not u cannot watch the show u noe…”
4. Either that or vanessa is really a big cry baby, who upon seeing her other frens leave with their parents really wanna see her dad…
5. But that still does not condone the reaction of her dad…

Last thing to say to Mr and Mrs Ng, if u’re trying to prove a point to us, there are better ways of doing it other than manipulating ur child emotionally… u dun have to make ur child suffer, and trying to jack us emotionally…. i tell u, if from the start u talk to us nicely, we could have let u in… but i’m glad we didnt give in…bastards n bitches like u ought to be shot and hung up somewhere… fuck u understand

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