Maternity 33

week 19: have fun!

 One of my 2010 resolutions is to have more fun with my children. I can lose sight of the “F” word when I am too focused on schedules and tasks and it is a shame because little ones provide so much opportunity for silliness, giggles and mischief.

Last week I brought my son to his first TaiKwonDo class. There is a studio in our neighborhood that takes children as young as three and we had been counting the days till his third birthday as this seemed like an activity he really wanted to try.

He is still in “trial” week and I’m not sure we will make the final cut-off (meaning we will have to come back when he is a little older), but it’s been so much fun regardless. Trying on the outfit, the headgear, bouncing on the mats, talking about it at night before going to bed.

On our first day, my son inadvertantly made the whole class laugh when he fell to the ground dramatically after mildly bumping into another child. He lay motionless on the floor while 15 pupils and instructors gathered around and asked if he was OK. Off in a corner, I was rolling with laughter. Upon discovering the influence he had, he could not resist and did it again. I thought this was great because he was interacting with the class, in his own way. So I giggled. Until a mother sitting besides me interjected: “don’t you think he is disturbing the class”. Shocked, i answered, ” but he is only three”. To which she responded: “Oh, I understand; sometimes they are just not ready”. I kept my cool and said: ” we will let the instructors decide”.

This mother killed my fun moment. She wasn’t wrong: my child was disturbing the class. But I enjoin you to never kill another parent’s fun time with children - these don’t happen so often, as parents are usually bogged down in logistics and responsibility.