4:00 am Toronto Ontario.  All is quiet

I give the BIGGEST MMVA award to all of those kid’s who braved the cold last night to get their MMVA wristbands today.

Last night, my daughter and I decided to take the bus down to Toronto and join the crowds.  I was amazed at the amount of kids and the even larger amount of security in attendance. Your children were in good hands with very caring and social security guards.  Thumbs up Much Music!

To be honest, I nearly died.  I didn’t know that I had any inkling of ailments until I spent a complete night sleeping on cold hard cement.  My hips are ragged and my knees ache this evening.

At 11 degrees Celcius, our bodies can certainly feel the bitter cold from within.  I laid there praying that some kind soul would lay a sleeping bag over me as I was convinced I would be fine otherwise.  It didn’t happen and I think most of the other kid’s were wishing for the same.  Tough as Nails.

There was one extremely irritating boy who kept screaming out “Taxi!” in a variety of voices for at least two hours between 1 am and 3 am.  Another young girl spent the majority of the night yelling and displaying her acrobatic skills down Queen and the surrounding streets.  I was more worried that she’d hurt herself more than anything else.  Aside from that, behavior was amazing.

When I woke up (from the only 2 precious hours that I had) the security guard informed me that many children left last night due to the cold.  I’m sure they would return as they did receive numbers.  My daughter then informed me that she wanted to return back to Cambridge.  She was feeling sick to her stomach and was convinced that she would die if she had to wait until 5pm to get the wristbands.

Being a mother before anything else, I obliged to leave but not before giving our numbers to a few of the troopers who decided to stay the remainder of the day.  They had pulled an all nighter and I wasn’t prepared to hand it off to just anyone.  These guys deserved it!

A few suggestions to parent’s who want to send their children next year to the MMVA line up.

– Give them an extra battery for their cell phone.  They use it constantly and many were complaining that they were soon going to lose power.  I think it’s important to keep in touch with them.  Just because there is security, they have to walk to use the washroom in the middle of the night (Tim’s does not stay open)

– Prepare them like they are going camping.  Layers, sleeping bags, a tarp for the wind and chairs.

– Take them there.  In order to be fully equipped, a parent needs to take them there and assist them in the preparation.  There were too many kids stuck in the cold last night without even a blanket.  To take this point further, there were a few kids who were even camped out in the Hilton Hotel bathroom at 3 am.

– Give them money.  Money for food and phone.  Again, many kid’s didn’t have any money.

– Practice kindness and respect. There were some kid’s out there that were not respectful to other’s.  Bullying and being inconsiderate is not ok.  Like the person beside them, they chose to come to this event and tough all of the elements (including the people near them).  It only takes a few people to make it an unpleasant experience for someone.

– Go with them (if they’ll let you). Experience the experience. Your kid’s are teen’s once.  Why not embrace it with them?  I felt like an old shoe but my daughter actually made me feel great when she told people that her mom was the coolest and that I’ll be blogging about it tomorrow.  We’ve gotta break the mold that this is a Kid’s Event!  JD Roberts was approaching 30 when Much Music launched in the 80’s.  Music will never be just for kids.

My ultimate plan was to video blog the whole experience.  However, it didn’t pan out and that’s ok.  I believe I have achieved a huge goal just by providing these tips to parents.

Speaking of deserving it.  Congrats to the four H&M Fashion Bloggers.  I have reviewed your videos and they are excellent!  However, being heavily involved in social media, I will be choosing based on Social Media skill.  There are a few that only started blogging, tweeting and Facebooking your journey.  Keep it up!  The real kudo’s go to those who have been working vigourously on their passion for a long time and have achieved this honour through hard work!

I really wanted to blog for the MMVA’s this year, however, this didn’t pan out.  Like I said, it’s a young person’s world out there and that’s just the way it is.  However, because of the Internet and my blog, I can still continue doing what I’m doing!

Til Next Time,

Trina

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