Unstoppable Good Times
Sunday, November 4th, 2007
The other day we went to a birthday party for a very young person. We brought our own very young person to the party. It was at this place, I think it was called Gymbore. It’s a place that has padded mats all over the floor, short plastic slides, and all kinds of inflatable, bouncy, soft things. Like an indoor playground. The Party was organized by this place, but it seems like they regularly do business by teaching movement classes for toddlers and their parents. The party was lead by an employee of this place who sang, blew bubbles, passed out plastic toys, and did all of this while holding a 3-foot tall stuffed clown in front of her.
Normally, this kind of thing would not be my cup of tea. No big deal, cause it’s for kids. Before having a son, this kind of place would have nearly disgusted me. For one thing, even one clown is too many, and there was a repeated theme. I actually think the clown was the mascot for the place. The way the program was led would have seemed to me to be too condescending to the kids, even the toddlers. The music would have been so cliché and mindless to me that I would have looked down upon any parent that would subject their child to this kind of consumerist socialization practice.
However, now that I have a son my perspective on this whole event surprised me. I found myself singing the songs for him and encouraging him to participate in all the activities. Nearly all of my elitist prejudices about this place slid right off of my greasy ego once I saw how much fun this little boy was having. He was smiling, running, climbing, sliding, and chasing bubbles like there was no tomorrow. He was having such a good time and it took a moment for me to realize that he didn’t have any preconceived connotations for all of the music or the imagery or even for the way that the group leader was speaking to him. For Eli, it was only a new experience with lots of color and abundant padded play-space. To him it was all good fun. It really made me open my mind and remember that it’s not about me, it’s about Eli.