Get off your high (vault) horse already!

Posted January 30, 2013 8 Comments by Amber Perea

Photo Credit: growingupfortcollins.com

So I have been tirelessly searching for an appropriate activity (as though I don’t run around enough for therapy) that Jp can join and expand his social horizons. I want him to have more interaction with peers and at least some time per week that is dedicated to a physical activity that he can enjoy and learn from simultaneously. His interests are rather limited so this is a more daunting task than it seems at first glance. Here were some of my prerequisites:

1) Nothing involving singing toddler appropriate music. Jp is picky, picky, picky on this issue and if he is disinterested will cover his ears for the entire duration. Never seen a kid that hates the ‘Itsy Bitsy Spider’? Well, come on over to my house.

2) Nothing that involves books. He is jealous of a flea’s attention span, no joke.

3) Nothing that involves taking turns. He doesn’t grasp the concept and is easily frustrated in these types of scenarios.

4) Nothing with too many rules. Again, with a language barrier it becomes confusing and difficult for him to follow.

5) Nothing that involves meeting up with strangers. I love my son but awkward social situations in the name of love are out of the question. I have tried, I promise, but it was so uncomfortable that I never went back.

6) Nothing that is held out of my sight. I don’t want to drop him off with a language delay at a ‘mother’s day out’ and hope for the best. He isn’t the best listener (understatement of the century) and is prone to wandering off so I would worry myself to death the entire time.

So as you can see, I am working with a rather limited pool of activities for his age range. I looked into swimming but that wouldn’t be for another year. I thought dance would be fun since he seems to enjoy hip hop music (I have no idea whose child he is) and it is visual learning, which he excels in. Classes start at age 4. Then I stumbled across toddler tumbling. I thought, “How perfect!”

Tumbling is something he does at home frequently as we work a ton with learning action verbs. He loves to roll and bounce and jump. He even knows the words perfectly and is able to follow the directions if given. How structured could a class for 2 year old’s be, right?

Wrong.

I received a call yesterday letting me know that the classes are (verbatim quote), “Quite structured as we are preparing future gymnasts for the more advanced classes so someone with a difficulty in following directions would not be a good fit.” It was all I could do to thank her and hang up before I became even more irritated.

They are two for goodness sakes. They acted like they were training for the Olympics! All I wanted was for Jp to have a fun, social activity once a week where he could run off some energy and be around other children his age. What fantastic strides as a gymnast are they making at age two? I anticipated tiny trampolines and rolling around on brightly colored mats not mini versions of Nadia Comaneci.

What I think is the worst part is that they didn’t even give him a chance. I understand that he has some language issues but he is a great kid. He loves to be active and might have been a wonderful addition to your class. Why not ask us to come for a trial lesson just to see if it was a fit before you just out and out rejected him from the program? Thank you for taking the time to get to know someone on a personal level before you wrote them off as “unfit”. Oooooh, I was so furious but know that losing my temper at an employee of the gym wasn’t going to solve anything. As though venting on my blog does…hmmm. 🙂

So my quest continues. Any idea would be welcome!

Uncategorized kids moms parenting socialization toddler tumbling toddlers

Amber Perea View All →

I’m just living minute to minute, hour to hour, day to day.