Hello everyone, I have an urgent question, and would greatly appreciate an answer.
I am the mother of a wonderful, sensitive seven-year-old boy, who is about to go into second grade. The school he attends has a great tradition, where a couple of times a year, all the parents get together and put on a parents-only play for the kids to watch and enjoy. As you can imagine they are very light hearted, and are mostly just excuses for the parents to show off, and act goofy. Needles to say all the kids, including my son, greatly look forward to these shows. However my concern is towards something that happens on stage.
The character I was chosen to play is a typical damsel in distress. Within the first several minutes of the play, I come onstage, and run into a character called Rob (played by a father of a student). He comments on how nice he thinks my shoes are, and says that in fact his daughter wants a pair exactly like them. He then proceeds to ask me to give him the shoes as a gift. After a couple minutes of funny banter, I refuse to surrender the shoes. His character then delivers a very comical fake punch, which knocks me out. I fall forward and he catches me then picks me up and carries me in his arms, and then lays me down in a corner at the front of the stage. He then removes my shoes and runs away with them, and the play continues, now with the added set piece of me lying unconscious (and barefoot) on stage, where I am to remain for the rest of the show.
Now this is all obviously, very cheesy, and in good humor. But frankly I don’t know if this is something that my son would enjoy watching. Seeing his mom knocked unconscious and carried by a strange man, who then leaves her lying shoeless and out cold, even in a pretend way, seems like a bit harsh of an image. For me, even picturing my mom feigning unconsciousness, is uncomfortable. Also, at the end of the play, when all the parents come up to bow, to keep the joke going Rob is supposed to carry me, still passed out, while everyone bows. I don’t think all this warrants dropping out of the show, as that will probably upset my son even more, but I am really in need of some advice on what, if anything I should do. Again, I will greatly appreciate some opinions, thank you.