From a Parent to a Parent: Understanding why your child actor does not want to practice in front of you.

Why?

So yesterday in class, a mother asked about why it’s hard for her daughter to practice her craft in front of her. She stated that the daughter will do it in front of others but not her.

I told her that I felt the same resistance from my son when he first started. Not only that, I noticed that at the different acting schools he went to, parents were not allowed to watch, and sometimes not allowed to stay at the school (drop off only).  It wasn’t until I watched our head teacher at Actors Youth Academy in action, that I realized how she is able to give feedback about technique and other.  Parents are just a little critical (even when we don’t want to be).  We already know the strengths and beauty of our kids, so we tend to focus on what isn’t working, and what doesn’t look right, and we let our kids know. Youth can take constructive criticism as I’m not good, or I’m not good enough (and not realize that the criticism is about the performance not them). Trained acting instructors, such as Maegan Mcconnell, know how to work with youth and don’t focus on what isn’t working but what else could they try. It’s not, “why do you do that like that?” but “Great, now try it like this.” Kids know their parents, and they know how critical we can get (even the nicest parents). There is no doubt that that plays a huge role on whether a young actor decides to practice their craft in front of their parents. This really is their career, so the more they are in an environment that is positive and motivates their creativity without having to deal with what doesn’t seem right, the more confident and better they will be at their craft. You will see that with time, and once they feel more comfortable with themselves and learn to love themselves as actors, they will be able to practice in front of you. Any criticism (yours or of an industry leader) will be accepted as constructive for their craft and not misunderstood as a criticism about themselves.

Now there may be other reasons too. Just ask them. The mom in this scenario asked if I would put this on the blog. So here it is. Enjoy.