I am writing this post as I watch my kiddo embark on his first solo class at The Little Gym. It has been almost three years since we first started classes at The Little Gym, but as I observe him through the window, memories of our first parent-child class are as fresh as the memories I am making watching him confidently hang on the uneven parallel bars without assistance.
We moved to Cincinnati when my kiddo was just two months old. It was January, and though the weather was much milder than a Wisconsin winter, I was still in the habit of hibernating until March. I was also heading of warnings of my kiddo’s doctors and nurses, who warned of the dangers of cold and flu season with a little baby. Plus, there are very few activities for kiddos under six months old, let alone one that was as little as mine. Combine all of that with post-partum depression and anxiety, and I frankly was terrified of going anywhere with my kiddo.
As the weather got warmer, and he got older, and I started working through my depression and anxiety, I craved activities that I could do with my kiddo. One day, as I was driving, I saw a sign in a strip mall for The Little Gym. I looked it up when I got home, and I knew immediately that this was the place I needed. They had parent-child classes starting at four months, offered at times that worked with our nap and feeding schedule, in a location that was convenient, and most importantly, I could try the class without a commitment. I also was able to schedule my first class online, which I appreciated, because it felt less threatening and overwhelming to scroll through options on a computer screen than verbally answering questions.
After our first class at The Little Gym, I was hooked. I loved getting out with my kiddo in a brightly colored, soft, safe environment that he could explore. The gym had squishy mats and ramps for him to crawl and roll around on, bars to practice standing and pulling himself up, and plenty of open space to investigate. Each class followed the same format but the activities differed week to week. From those early days, my kiddo was a huge fan of the air track, which is essentially a bouncy house without the walls or ceiling. I’ve loved watching the pure joy on his face as he has moved from crawling to walking to running to jumping across the air track.
But I think what I loved most, especially in those early classes, is that was a dedicated time with my kiddo in which I was solely focused on having fun with him. I was always focused on him, but my anxiety controlled my interactions with him. Everything I did with him was a specific task intended to help him reach an appropriate developmental outcome. I worried constantly that I wasn’t doing enough to facilitate him sitting, crawling, standing, walking, and talking. The Little Gym instructors taught me to have fun with him and just let him explore and manipulate his new environment, insisting that I follow his lead as he crawled and rolled around the mats. And yes, he grew and developed and hit his milestones too.
A lot of the parents in our classes became friendly, and I’m sure they got together outside of classes for playdates. I’m sure I could’ve joined in, but honestly, that’s not what I needed from those classes in the first few months. I needed to learn how to be a fun mom, and to appreciate how awesome my kiddo was, and to let go of the anxiety and fear I felt almost all day every day. I needed to embrace the pure joy that comes from banging on a balance beam because it made the best sound, or feel the elation of covering myself with brightly colored, silky scarves. I took those lessons from The Little Gym home with me, and every day that I just played with my kiddo, I could feel the anxiety and tension and worry that consumed me ever so slowly release its debilitating hold on me.
We’ve been taking classes at The Little Gym for almost three years, and we both love it as much now as I did then. My kiddo does classes independently now, and I enjoy watching him through the window as he listens to his teacher, follows directions, practices skills, improves his balance and coordination, and grows stronger. But what I love most is his huge smile and proclamation of “That was fun!” at the end of every class, because I know that he learned the most important lesson of all – have fun.
