what to do

I have many a time seen parents in a store or restaurant watched their kids making a scene and thought, "thank you for not letting that be me."  Today, I know that 4 or 5 parents were watching me and thinking the same thing. 

A. has been taking dance now for a little over a month.  Up to this point, she has LOVED it.  She talks about it starting 2 days before class and then the morning of she is so excited that she gets on her own leotard and tights.  Today, was a totally different world.  The morning started out with pumpkin pancakes and a bath.  Then my sweet little girl decided to "surprise" me by taking every single piece of clothing out of her dresser and dump it on her floor.  I'm not sure what mother she thought she had or what mother would love that but lucky me, I was the recipient.  We left, in a bit of a rush and with out cleaning up the mess.  We got to dance and A. ran into the studio.  So far, so good.  5 minutes in, she began crying and reaching for me.  I wasn't watching because I was trying to console a very sleepy baby; I didn't see the precursor.  She came out to get a hug and just kept saying, "I want to go home."  I tried everything from "I love you but go on out" to, "Look at Ella, she looks so pretty pointing her toes, I really want to see you do it too."  Nothing worked.  I finally told her that it wasn't time to sit on my lap so if she wasn't going to go in and dance she needed to go sit in the corner.  She obliged and stayed there for awhile, so that obviously didn't work.  A few minutes later I thought we had success when I told her how lucky she was to get to take dance classes and she headed back out there.... for 3 minutes.  What?  She came back out to get a hug and stayed until everyone came for their tap shoes, about 5 minutes.  I thought the transition would help so I sat back in my chair.  It didn't last.  She was crying through her neat feet and soldier solo, her favorite part.  She just kept telling me she was so tired.  I told her disruptive self that if she was so tired she couldn't sleep then she had to go home and go to bed.  We left and she stayed in her room for an hour.  

I know the other parents were so happy that it wasn't their kid.  I wonder if it was missing dance last week, the rushing out of the house, or how ungrateful that I was for my "surprise" but I had a very unhappy kid. Hopefully, next week will be much better.