How to Survive the Boy Band Phase

Sorry, sorry, sorry…

That’s the most popular song of the equally popular boy band, Super Junior (Suju), which held a Super Show concert here in Manila last Saturday, April 10. Preteens, teens, young adults and not-so-young-anymore adults have been going gaga over them. My daughter C2 is no exception. She has their CDs, follows them intensely on Twitter, joined an Asian fan club, reads fan fiction, and many more things that get her excited when she talks about them.

Now this post is NOT about the Super Junior boys although I will get to them in a while. This is a tale of how I am surviving the boy band phase.

Flashback to several years ago.

It was the Taiwanese boy band, F4, and Meteor Garden then. I think all of you still remember that. Everyone was swooning over Jerry Yan, Vanness Wu, Ken Chu and Vic Chou. Meteor Garden was THE soap opera to follow then and I myself was caught up in its love story and drama. We even have the entire series in Mandarin with English subtitles (which the children claim is a whole lot better than the dubbed versions – I agree).

When the F4 first came to Manila for a concert at the Ultra, my girls (C1 and C2), who were then just in their mid-teens, insisted on watching. With some reluctance, knowing that Ultra was really not Araneta where seats and areas are more delineated, I agreed but told them to keep their cell phones open at all times so I could reach them. Before the concert could begin, I got a call from them. C2 said, in words I can’t forget “Mom, we almost died here!”

My knees felt faint. What could have happened? I told her we’d get them right then and there but she and her sister kept assuring us they were already okay and that they had found their places at Ultra (well, not exactly, because they never got to the seats they paid for as people with different tickets ended up together). But that whole night I was very uneasy, continuing to wonder if the crowd was still rowdy and very worried till they got home safe.

They related that at the line outside Ultra, fans began pushing hard and since both of them were near a chicken wire fence, the momentum of the pushing crowd pushed both of them, especially C2 towards the fence till she had a hard time breathing. Thankfully, some guy saw their predicament and pulled them to safety.

For me then, it was NEVER AGAIN!!! The second time F4 had a concert (originally slated for Araneta Coliseum but eventually moved again to Ultra), they were no longer allowed to go.

Now it’s the Korean boy band invasion all over and C2 once again became insistent about watching this Super Junior Super Show.

She even forked out the entire amount for her SVIP ticket and got a seat just 5 rows away from the stage. I could see she was really itching to go and thankfully, her blockmate in school (who knows judo ha?) was going too.

What does a parent do when one starts having anxiety spells but realizes that you cannot forever protect your children especially if they are adults already?

Pray. Trust. Prepare.

Pray – Yes, when I feel anxious about a child’s safety, I lift up a prayer to his/her guardian angel and to St. Michael.

Trust – C2 is an adult and having gone through her F4 experience, I knew she was wiser in terms of taking care of herself. But of course, it did not mean I didn’t worry. I still did. Sometimes though, it really takes a lot out of us to let go and trust our children’s good judgement. Very much like Nemo’s dad, Marlin (Finding Nemo).

Prepare – Just to be sure, I had the cell phone number of her friend. And, I killed time at a coffeeshop not too far away with Chona so I could personally pick up C2 and her friend afterwards.

Well, all’s well that ends well. C2 is still giddy up to now about her personal, close encounter with her favorite boy band (as of now). I wonder how long this fascination will last.

Since the concert, I have had to listen to her becoming alternately ecstatic about her experience seeing her idol Donghae and the other Suju boys up close, then going into a regretful mood as she claims she was too short to see some of them clearly whenever the people would stand around her. Being the most popular of the SuJu songs, “Sorry, Sorry” is frankly stuck in my head for days already  (LSS-ing here…). But I actually like some of the pop songs and it shows that I’m not too old to appreciate my kids’ music and show interest in what interests them. What’s important at this stage is just to be present for them when they need me.

Till the next boy band that comes along…

Here’s that LSS song in my head (taken at the Super Show 2 concert) which you can watch in HD quality (thanks again to my friend Fritz for his awesome camera’s video)