Mother-Son Dance

On Saturday, October 2, 2010, the Urban Leadership Institute along with the Raising Him Alone Organization sponsored their first Mother-Son Dance. I was soooo excited and I told everybody about the event. I did not tell Man-child until a few days before the event. I thought "why tell him and he starts whinning about not attending. I went out looking for something that we could wear. I knew I could not dress us in the same outfit but I thought maybe something similar colors- but then, I thought "if i walk in that house with matching anything, he is not going to go".

To get ready for the dance, I tried to teach Man-child how to hand dance (you know like in the R. Kelly Stepping video). Well, Man-child has NO RHYTHM. A gene he inherited from his father. Next, I moved on to line dances - I figured everybody could do those. NOPE. Man-child definately has two left feet. At this point, I figured we would just go and have a great time.

When we arrived I got nervous. Man-child wanted to know what was on the menu. As we entered the ballroom, all we saw were boys under the age of 10 dancing with their mothers. Now I was worried. I looked at Man-child and said "ok we'll only stay for a little while". He just gave me that look. As we walked around, we found a table with two boys that were his age (Boy, I let out a big breath).

The ball started with the first dance to Boy II Men's song Momma. All of the mothers and sons was smiling. Some mothers were surrounded by two or more boys. You could feel the love and joy in the room. A few mothers cried. It was amazing. After lunch, chicken, wild rice and mixed veggies, the fun began. There was a dance contest for both the mothers and son. A 63 year old grandmother won the dance contest (she really put the younger mother's to shame) and her prized was a day spa gift package. They had a raffle for the boys - two autographed footballs from Baltimore Raven Ray Lewis.

Iyanla Vanzant was the guest speaker but due to an emergency, she could not make it. Instead, a sportcaster for the New York Jets, Brian (I can't remember his last name)talked of his upbring by a single mom and grandmother. He encouraged the boys to hold their heads up high no matter what they decide to do. He also told them to "Spread the word across the nation because they are part of a great generation". It was very moving.

After all of the speeches, it was time to dance and have fun. Man-child held my hand while I hand dance all around him. We laughed at his attempt to do the Cha-cha slide and Cupid Shuffle. Man-child could not do the electric slide - SAD -LOL. We had so much fun and I can't wait till next year. The only disappointment was a mistake that I made - I forgot to put the batteries in the camera - DUH!!! Even though I don't have pictures to share, the events of the day have been engraved in my heart forever.