Things can only get better
Barney’s at tennis, having taken the train for the second day in a row. He doesn’t want to grow up - says he’s having too much fun as a kid - but he’s not exactly displeased about the extra freedoms that growing up brings.
George and Freddy were going to hang out at the library while Jack went to Kindergym, but George has had one meltdown after another since waking this morning, so I wasn’t leaving him anywhere without supervision. Since the leisure centre is closed, Kindergym was taking place in the town hall. We got there, Jack watched them setting up. We went into the room, Jack clung to me. George and Freddy stood in the hall. The class started, Jack clung to me more. I heard someone talking to George and Freddy in the hall; they were being told off for sticking their feet all over the walls. I brought them in to stand beside me. Jack was still unwilling to participate. The woman running the programme came over and asked if I was staying; I confirmed that I was. She said I couldn’t: “if I let one parent stay all the parents would stay and there’d be no room for the children” - which might have been credible if every parent had already left except for me and one other mother. Jack started to cry. I told him - loudly - that I had no intention of leaving him unhappy, and we left.
I know Jack. I know that he’s a little slow to warm up to people, and I knew he wouldn’t be happy to be left in a place he’d never been before with a bunch of adults he didn’t know and 20 or so other kids he’d never met. I also know that if he’d been allowed to sit with me and watch for ten minutes and given a little encouragement, he’d have joined in and had a great time.
I don’t believe it’s appropriate for an instructor of anything to insist that children from 3 to 5 years of age are left without parents. Jack is on the waiting-list for the regular Kindergym programme; I’ll be taking his name off it, and writing a letter to say why.
George and Freddy were in gymnastics with this old bat until last December. The class was fine, although too big in my opinion, and really only the “stars” got any particular attention. A couple of weeks before Christmas, we were told they had to be there the following week at 9.30 instead of noon. When I told the instructor that they would be in the swimming-pool (having lessons) at that time, she basically shrugged and said that was tough. I know that competitive gymnasts have to sacrifice a lot of other things in order to practise - but these are classes for children aged 6-9. George and Freddy didn’t re-register for gymnastics when the new term started.
Today can only get better…right?
In: family, life, rants and moans
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oh dear. Really anoys me when places are obsessive about success and pushing kids to give up more time etc, aren’t they allowed to do stuff for *fun* at some point?? As for not having space for parents - well she needs to find somwehere bigger tehn.
Yuk to that attitude. I fail to understand how people can run activities for such young children and yet be so ignorant about their needs.
Because she’s not running it for young children; she’s running it for herself.
I encountered this and was unhappy about it when dd1 and 2 started drama class, the teech said it wasn’t about space it was because the children behaved differently when their parents were there. But they went (dd2 was about 3yo, the class is from 2&1/2) and were alright afaik, though dd2 was very cross with me for a couple of weeks. And they still go now. Though obviously they’ve moved up a couple of classes, lol.
The difference is that your dd1 and dd2 were okay; Jack was upset and crying. If he’d been willing to stay without me, I’d have been willing to leave him. But he wasn’t, and I don’t make a practice of ignoring and riding over my children’s feelings. And I think that the instructor expecting children to be left crying indicates that she isn’t someone who gives children’s feelings any respect.