When Your Kids Discover Dance Class

I’m not exactly what you’d call a joiner, and I never was. I never took dance classes, for example.  I wanted to, for a short time, but my parents were busy saving every penny they earned to send me to the private school I loved, so moot point.  And I pretty quickly grew out of my love for ballet shoes and tap costumes.

Joey is deep in the throes of that love.

Last year she took a basic ballet/tap class, and she loved it. She told her teacher she wants to take more classes and wants pointe shoes and wants to be a ballerina when she grows up and, and, and....

I’m exhausted just thinking about the energy this kid puts into dance.

This year, I tried to give her the choice between ballet and jazz, but she wanted to do them both so badly, I ended up giving in.  She’s also taking gymnastics, although that one is more for me than for her. See, her best friend from dance class is taking this gymnastics class, and her best friend’s mom is MY best friend from ballet class.  

No one ever said I don’t have ulterior motives.

Kimmie also wants to take dance and gymnastics.  The dance class for her age group is at the same time as the gymnastics class for her age group, two towns away. Also, Joey’s got gymnastics right after Kimmie’s age group in the same place. There is no way we could do dance for Kimmie right now.  So, she’s taking gymnastics.

As a result, I am becoming a “soccer mom.”  Okay, obviously, I”m using the term loosely, since we’re not talking about soccer, here.  You know what I mean, though. The mom who spends 80% of her day in her car, shuttling her kids from one activity or practice to another.

And we haven’t even gotten into extra-curricular activities at school, yet. This has the potential to get even worse.

But, how do I tell them that they can’t do something they love, or something they want to try?  I can’t. It’s just not in me.

I’m not going to go out and buy anyone custom ballet slippers or anything, but I’ll get them what they need, and let them have at it. We’ll see how they do, what they like, what sticks.  

Well, first of all, I want my kids to be fearless when it comes to trying new things. The way to manage that is to keep encouraging them to try new things.  I also want them to be able to pursue their interests. Right now, Joey is interested in dancing. She wants to learn how to do cartwheels. She’s not all that into brain surgery, so I skipped that class.  (I’m kidding. Although, if someone finds a brain surgery class for 6 year olds, please let me know.  I will force that one on her, just so I can sit in.)

Kimmie turns somersaults all over the house all day long.  I think gymnastics will be a good fit.  If she were spending most of her time twirling around in her sister’s tutu, I probably would have made a greater effort with the whole dance class thing.

Now, here’s where it gets fun, so pay attention.  Parents, these classes are where you want to be!  Because guess who’s there with their kids? Other parents!

On Joey’s first day of dance class last year, I whipped out my knitting, and the mom sitting next to me whipped out her knitting. Over the course of the next several weeks, we started talking, and before we knew it, we were both looking forward to dance class more than our kids.

Now, we’re forcing our kids to take gymnastics together so we don’t lose our knitting hour on Saturday mornings.  Well, “forcing” might be too strong a word, considering when I asked Joey “Hey, do you want to take gymnastics this fall?” she shrieked and jumped up and down like I just told her Justin Beaver was going to be here in ten minutes to give her a private concert.

Let me be clear, I’m not a fan of forcing activities on our children. I am a fan of allowing our kids to pursue their interests, and if that happens to involve me making a few new friends along the way, well, woohoo!

Heaven knows, if I were left to my own devices, I’d be a hermit and die alone in a house full of cats.