During the grade 8 game, two boys are slow dancing (shuffling, slow dancing, grinding; whatever you want to call it) with two girls. This did not come naturally but through one of my great games (even if I say so myself). So what? Then all at once the whole group runs outside. The biggest party-danger of a pre-puber gets too close: PARENTS. Worse: with the camera running.
Awkward boundary
Group 8 parties are great to do, and when I’ve pulled the pre-pubers over the awkward line through fun battles and the right music it’s great for them too. For the parents too; but they often find it just a little too much fun.
Parents make it embarrassing
The children are (completely unconsciously) dancing outside their comfort zone. They do so in the familiar environment of their classmates. As a DJ, I am tolerated in this but the parents… Parents are still parents and at this age everything is embarrassing. Especially if the parents also want to film it. And they do: with their cameras, they invade the territory of the pre-pubers.
Approach your prey quietly
When I am hiking in the Amsterdam Water Supply Dunes in my spare time I see this too: from a distance deer are doing their thing but one step too close and they run away. I want to avoid that running away, which is why I keep my distance. Is your child throwing a grade 8 party? Then consider the group as a pack of deer. Are you behind the bar? Stay behind the bar (or approach the prey quietly). Take a picture? Do it subtly. Especially during slowing.
In short: are you throwing a grade 8 party? Keep your distance. Don’t get too close too quickly. Take your pictures from a distance. The experience now is always more important than the image afterwards.
