Christmas Concert Finally Over! (and venting about parent audiences)

The christmas concert I've been working on with the kids at the elementary school where I teach was finally performed this Wednesday night. It featured Christmas carols from various countries as we tracked santa's progress around the world. It was very cute. We had two "news anchors" sitting at a desk at the front of the stage and painted a map of the world on the back wall. Before the news anchors talked to the field reporters in each country, they asked the weathergirl for the Christmas Eve weather forcast for that city.

It went over very well, but I am always frustrated at these performances. Because I myself do quite a bit of performing, I try to make the experience for the kids as authentic and professional as possible. We use the correct terminology for things, I train one or two kids to act as stage managers and run all the sound and lights and they even call all their own cues on headsets. The kids take it very seriously. It is a really great moment for them when they finally get to put it all together.

The problem is that the parents don't seem to take it as seriously. Some come really early and then complain that the house isn't open, some come very late and cause a disturbance coming in, I even had a mother walk right across the front of the gym, right in front of the stage in the middle of a scene, walking right in front of the camera as we were taping the show. I know that they are very likely to bring young siblings, but is it too much to ask for them to keep them from crawling around on the floor and up under the dress of a primary girl as she performs in the choir? (Yes, that happened too!)

I know this happens all the time, but do I really have to just clench my teeth and bare it?