Tomorrow I am going to see Miley Cyrus. And no it's not by choice. My daughters have seen every episode of Hannah Montana and were devasted when she came a couple of years ago to nearby Charlotte and scalpers grabbed up tickets in record time. But thanks to some insurance money from a house fire and some strokes of good luck and good timing, we have four tickets to see the show tomorrow.

I love my kids. They don't have everything I would like for them to have. We go to various friends;s houses and they have these elaborate swingsets and playhouses and I look in my own back yard and there is nothing for my girls. They certainly have their share of Barbies and stuff but they had the (mis) fortune to be the children of a hard-working man who is terrible with money decisions and seems to have the exact opposite abilities of King Midas. I know my older daughter is starting to notice that she doesn't have some of the things that her friends have but she never complains. I do not have to buy my childrens' love and I hope I have taught them that material things come and go but the important things in life, like family, are constants.

So why did I get them tickets to Miley? $400 would be a godsend to us right now. I am behind in just about everything and I have a lot of sleepless nights worried about how bills are going to be paid. But I had $400 a few months ago and I bought the tickets. And the girls are so excited.

I remember back to 1988 when my Dad did something similar. Or almost did. I didn't have a lot of money growing up but I didn't really notice. We rented a lot of houses and moved around a lot and my dad did his share of career searching. So Prince is coming to the local 2000 seat theater. And the tickets sold out in minutes. And I was devasted because I had not seen the man live and I couldn't believe I couldn't get tickets to the show. So my dad comes home a couple days before and he sits me down and he says, "I got out 200 from the bank. It is all we can afford. If you want to try to buy a ticket before the show, I'll drop you off. Maybe somebody will have a spare ticket. I'll hang out and make sure you get in safely."

In hindsight, I guess it is a little f'ed up---my dad encouraging me to buy from a scalper. But he knew how bad I wanted to go to the show. And it meant the world to me because I knew he couldn't stand Prince but he realized how important it was to me. Long story short, Prince got snowed in at the Atlanta airport and had to cancel the Columbia show. I didn't get to see Prince for another 9 years but my dad was going to give me the chance then.

We do things for our children. Music is important to them, a chance to rock out with those they see on TV and have on their walls. I think Miley is talented but also an egotistical twerp who is (as Family Guy alluded to a few weeks ago)more robot than real girl right now. But she doesn't curse and her songs are targeted for children right in my little girls' age range. By next year my girls will be into Taylor Swift or someone else; I don't expect the to be 25 year long fans of Miley. But maybe they will remember the show that Mommy and Daddy took them too and will do the same with their own.

Gotta go buy some earplugs now.

awww you are so sweet.

WTF is Miley Cyrus so expensive anyway? If I pull on a donkey's tail too hard, it makes the same noise....

$400 DOLLARS!!!!!

That's a Birthday Party for 12 plus a bounce house and we live in the gatdamn Bay Area (cost of living here sux ballz)!!!

Man, and I thought we overdid it when we took our two anklebiters to "The Jungle" fro $25 bucks this evening... (it's an indoor jungle gym-type crawl thingy... cool.as.hell.)

awwww....i remember my parents borrowing money so they could buy me new kids on the block concert tickets when i was a kid. it's sweet you're doing that for your kids!!!!

RenHoek said:

Completely agree. $400 is way too much and would have been way out of our price range if we hadn't had cursed pork chops set fire to our kitchen. But that is what Billy Ray's offspring goes for. I guess maybe I could've held out for tickets to the Mitchel Musso tour but my girls wanted to see La Diva Cyrus.

GottaLetitgo said:

Mixed blessing perhaps??

It's funny because my wife and I were talking about whether or not we do enough for our kids, so this gives me a little perspective...

(Secretly, I happen to think "Party in the USA" is an OK track for my girls to listen to... when they're not listening to Prince... )

The kids came running an hour and a half ago screaming "It's Miley Day, it's Miley Day!!!" Then they let us go back to sleep, which was nice because we're going to need all the energy we can get today. They announced the concert almost 6 months ago so it has been a long wait for them. A half a year is a long time in a celebrity life cycle. I did have a fear that Billy Ray's golden goose would get involved in some major :You Tube scandal and then I would have to make a judgment call. But I'll give the girl credit, other than the occasional questionable photo or inane interview (like the one where she says she did not know the name of any Jay Z songs and didn't like pop music) she has kept her nose clean. So I guess I'm going...

11 hours and counting.

GottaLetitgo said:

You're a good man, Gotta.

GottaLetitgo said:

That's such a sweet story ...
But $400 sure is a lot of money! I think it's a bit perverted. The marketing machines behind Miley know exactly how to manipulate those prizes. They know that a lot of parents would go this far for their off spring.

1013Nightlife said:

I know, Disney reeled in another sucker parent. Rat bastards!

That's such a sweet thing to do.
I took my 2 to see the Wiggles last year... I actually ended up enjoying it

I managed to keep it from my son that she was coming until today, he heard and said he wanted to see her while shes in town. Of course I told him we werent and we would be enjoying nothing but some gamecock football lol I love my son, but I cant handle that girl for an entire concert!

I sometimes put a note in my kids lunch boxes telling them how much I love them and that they are special and wonderful girls. They are always excited when I do this, they get a real buzz.

chocolatehandles said:

My 5yr old is so excited he can read my notes by himself now, he tells me I dont have to just put pictures anymore.

In my day, I simply did without.

why can't I remember all the good things my parents did for me?

I only remember stuff they didn't do, like when I asked them to record the Syracuse show because we'd be out all day, but my dad forgot

Enjoyed your thread GottaLetitgo. My Mom bought the concert tics for me for my birthday in 1988 for the Lovesexy Tour. Let us know how everything went!

Two years ago, I got my daughter "A" ticket to see Chris Brown. There was no way in hell I was sitting through that. I dropped her off at the venue and came back to pick her up.

So the concert is over. Pretty good little show for what it was. Say what you want about Miley but the girl puts on a half decent show. The girl actually sings...no lip synching that I could tell and it was really high energy. It was a tad short (about an hour and a half long after a 6 month build up) but she got in all the hits the little girls (thousands upon thousands of them) wanted to hear.

But here are the important things. My girls absolutely loved it. We managed to bypass the $35-$50 T-shirts and they were tickled pink with the $10 flashy things that had Miley's name written on them. The girls were patient through the process, the 45 minutes or so we had to wait in line outside, the 45 or so minutes before the show once inside and the fairly godawful opening act (Miley's brother btw). So Miley comes out about 8:00 and their eyes just lit up. And for the next 90 minutes my 8 year old did not sit down...she sang her little heart out to every song. Well, except for "I Love Rock and Roll", which she thought was a new song and had no idea it was Miley's cover of something from Mommy and Daddy's heyday. I tried to make her sit down a couple of times so she wouldn't wear herself out but I think standing up made her feel more connected. My four year old was into it but the poor girl got petered out about an hour into it...she kept asking me how many songs were left but then Miley would do something neat and she would be on her feet, mimicking her sister she adores. And so it went for the duration of the show.

Towards the end of the show, the little one looked up at me and with such tired sweetness said, "Thank you Daddy". When I carried her out, she said it again. My wife sat closer to my 8 year old and she said she hugged her the whole show and said thank you about 500 times. As we were walking past the crowd, I heard it over and over from little kids to their parents, "Thank You". And that just struck me. I think a lot of these kids know deep in their heart that this is not something everybody got to do. (Many had to do without, this is true). Maybe some of them even realized that in many cases their parents were making a sacrifice for this. Abnd the gratitude warmed my heart.

I do not give my girls nearly what I wish I could. I will say no many times more than I say yes and I think I have raised them well. But I'm glad I said yes to this.

Today was a good day.
[Edited 11/28/09 20:13pm]

Thank goodness my nephews were Green Day and NIN fans by the age of 6




Hope you enjoyed the show though

Imago said:

They probably shouldn't have been

Cinnie said:

It's good music!

A good day for your family. No wonder my home feels warmer tonight; you live fairly close! Nice to have fellow purple peeps nearby.

RenHoek said:

That's my semester tuition!

GottaLetitgo said:

You're such a sweet father! I'm glad that it was worth the 400 dollar!
So, no more Disneyland for a while ...

GottaLetitgo said:

Aw, this is wonderful. You and they will remember it always.

These lines, more than anything, tell me what a good father you are:

GottaLetitgo said: