Baby ballerinas do grow up!

When your darling child came into the world, a parent was born. When the dance bug bites them a little later on, the parent becomes a specialist: Ballet Mom.

Or Ballet Dad. This is equal-opportunity time.

So it might help you to know what you're in for. Any parent whose kid is in ballet knows the drill. (By the way, the term "drill" applies very neatly. You're in the Army now, you're in the Army now.)

• March your little princess off to classes, first stuffing her into pink tights. Or if it's your little prince, you might get a break on the tights -- for now.
• Be prepared to spend WAAAY too much for frilly leotards when they're small, pointe shoes when they're older.
• When showtime draws near, shuttle them to and from rehearsals, on a nearly nightly basis.
• Become accomplished at sewing sequins on clouds of netting, and other specialized craft skills. You'll need them in the wonderful world of costume manufacture, repair and maintenance. These are usually contraptions that hang together with glue and anxious hopes that repairs will keep them intact for one more year.
• Sell tickets. If you do nothing else, but do this well, you'll be the king or queen of your ballet school. But you may also end up buying a lot of them yourselves, bankrupting the royal treasury.

Say goodbye to anything resembling a peaceful Christmas season for a few years. You'll be too busy getting ready for "The Nutcracker" to shop. Peter Tchaikovsky owes a lot of parents, BIG time, for the popularity of that particular composition.

The big night finally arrives. Think you get to sit back and enjoy the show? Well, maybe one night, you do. You did buy multiple sets of tickets, after all.

But many of us head for the stage door to become the voluntary crew.We're the ones who, garbed in black, with flashlights, wait in the wings to help dancers on with their tiaras or off with their ballet slippers, pinning on bits of costume until the slaves in the sewing room can make a permanent fix.

We know what those gossamer beauties really look like after they pirouette offstage, panting and perspiring. Some of us have had to peel fairly rank items of apparel off said beauties. (Some of them are the guys -- little boys eventually DO grow up and wear tights. It's not a pretty picture, from close up.)

Of course, what offsets the turmoil with the safety pins and sweat is the sight of our children who grow up in the ballet, loving what they do. It's seeing your daughter thrill at the chance to dance a new role or to wear that snowflake you crafted out of netting and sequins.

When we hear the applause, some of us can put all the stress behind us.

Some of us go home and, after a well earned rest, pick up fundraising where we left off. I'm an alumna ballet mom who used to sell on eBay for my daughter's dance company. That effort grew into an eBay store that's still open here:

Shopping-Hawaii

When I make a sale, I do a happy dance. I just don't wear a tutu.

Do your part to support the arts in YOUR community!