I know…. I'm not, but really, who feels that grown up?
So we went out and about today and had a fairly nice day.
Popped up to visit the neighbours this morning to sort out the plans for the week and the kids did this yoga video together and it was seriously hilarious to watch.
We were all going to head off to the markets together and to the open day Rio's ballet class was having but we realised she had… well an issue that meant she need to go see a doctor that morning instead. More on this if it becomes relevant.
We still went off to do the normal Saturday morning things, with added 'Tutu Day'. Met up with friends at the park, and then went off with another little boy from our parents group and one of the mums to this open dance class.
Atti couldn't have cared less. He did try to do the feet, briefly, but he wasn't interested. The other little by, who I will call Joe - he loved it. Rio's mum had given me a little rainbow tulle skirt in case Atti wanted to wear it (nope) and he put that on, went up the barre, did leg lifts and everything. It was the cutest thing ever. His mother decided to leave because she felt like he was distracting the class and he was sobbing about it. OMG the cutest thing.
So I was telling the other mum about the dance class. That one, which I know a bit about because of Rio, and another toddler general dance class not far off that we have been thinking about going to. And her response really surprised me.
She told me she didn't want him to do anything that had an aesthetic component, because she didn't want him to think about how he looked.
Now I come from a family where we have a LOT of people who have done a lot of 'aesthetic' sports and arts stuff. So I kind of get it… there can be problems with it. But still, he pretty clearly really liked dance, so I was surprised she wasn't thinking of finding some way for him to enjoy that.
It is a funny thing this parenting lark. I tried flipping it about in my head, because I think I would resist it pretty strongly if Atti was a girl. But I am really pretty 'whaaatevs' about things like dance or diving or gym with my son. Partly based on my personal experience - the guys I knew in these sports didn't have the problems girls did. None of them (that I am aware of) had eating disorders or self esteem issues or any kind of body dysmorphia type things. Or much in the way of body damage either. There is problems of elite sports/arts and kids now and the kind of time requirements, but I will deal with that if it is ever an issue.
Right now I try to find things Atti likes, and responds to and that give him some benefits for us to go to. There definitely are things we have done because I wanted to, but now that he is old enough to realistically start to have a say, he gets some input. We don't do sign class anymore because he just wasn't getting anything out of it or enjoying it - I liked it, but he just ran around and wouldn't join in. He still loves swimming and so we do that*. He seems to really like the toddler gym, so we go to that regularly. When he doesn't like something, we don't persist, but if he does, I try to make it happen a bit.
So I was surprised to hear someone say that their view will take precedence already.
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