I took the kids to a little park and rec class for little kids today. It is once a week for 45 minutes. It is my attempt to get them out and among other kids. I looked into alternating day care with them and keeping one home, but its just too ungodly expensive. For each kid to have a 4 hour day care session once a week was going to cost me like 600-800 a month. This class is only about 80 dollars for both to have an hour with me. Not quite what I was going for, but its a start.
Forty-five minutes seems like a short time, but it is not when you are in a LOUD large playgroup with several other children and you are trying to supervise yours. I originally signed them up for a class for 10-15 month olds, but they didn't think I could supervise both of them in that setting, so they wanted me to enroll in this family class for siblings to take together. So there are 6 months to three year olds in this class, but they have extra staff. One thing I've learned about having twins, is that there are all these rules about adult:child ratio and often twins kind of put people over the legal limit. So, I don't mind being in this class, I think it actually gives the kids more social interaction because babies don't really play with each other, but 2 and 3 year olds are so fascinated by babies that they are coming up to mine all the time and talking to them. It was really cute. Two of the staff really kept an eye on us and helped us out. I was mostly low key and didn't really push any major activity this time. I was just trying to acclimate myself as well as the kids. Mostly Naim and I just sat on a mat and let things, toys, kids, etc. come to us. Aaron, however, was in heaven and he was all over the place. The staff really helped a lot in keeping track of him. I can usually always tell which kid is him even though I can't see the children clearly because of the way he moves. I can tell this about my dad and sister, too. (And figure skaters, I might add.) A whole bunch of people could be walking around and I can't see any clear features on any of them, but I can tell their movements. You know your kids so well, you can just tell by the motion of their bodies. (Incidentally, I can usually keep track of D because he is the only one using a wheelchair. But if their are others in power wheelchairs around, I have trouble telling them apart, because power chairs move the same. I've often gone up to the wrong guy in rehab hospitals!)
So the class was fun and tiring for me as well as the kids. They did parachute activities and a few other little activities. Aaron was asleep before we hit the train station to go home. They actually are going to change me again into another class with less people but still the same amount of staff. So I will get to go this Wednesday, too, and then I will start going on Wednesdays. My dad might come with me sometimes. He will be the only man there, of course.
Most of the other moms were really nice to me, but this one woman pissed me off. I took the light rail train to this place with the kids in their stroller. I have to walk about a quarter mile from my house to the station, then ride the train for about 15 minutes. Then at the station I get off at, I have to take an elevator up to ground level, walk a few yards, take another elevator up to a walking bridge that crosses a major highway, then go down a LOOOONG and winding ramp, cross a street, and there I am. It is not hard, but today was cold and rainy so it was a bit of a drag.
The weather in the Northwest is relatively mild during the rainy season. Meaning, it gets cold, but you are never in danger of freezing to death. Usually during the rainy season it is in the 40's. Compared to the below zero weather I grew up with in the Midwest, its nothing. So I dress the kids in long sleeves, a rain jacket with a hood, a hat that wraps around their ears under the hood, and mittens. The stroller has a sunshade that blocks most of the rain, but they do get a bit wet. My feeling about it is that they are not going to die, at most they might get a little uncomfortable, and hey, they need to get used to it because we are a pedestrian family in a rainy climate. They really don't complain too much about it.
Anyway, that's background for you; but back to rude lady. I was bundling the kids up after class and I had parked my stroller in the lobby area. I put them in there and she says to me, "Isn't someone coming to pick you up?"
"No," I said, "I'm taking the train home."
"You think you can walk clear over to the train station with those children in that stroller in the rain?"
"Yes, we do it all the time," I said. Then feeling like I had kind of a snotty tone, I tried to be light about it. "Oh, they are used to it. They love the train."
"But its raining out and they are going to get wet. I just wouldn't want to see them get sick."
"Oh, I'm pretty fast and they aren't in the rain too long, we just jump over the bridge and we are there."
Tsk tsk tsk..."I just don't think it is a good idea. I don't think it is a very responsible thing to do. I mean, I just am concerned about the children is all. I understand that some people have to use TriMet (public transportation) but its really not safe for children. I just really think it would be better if you could have someone give you a ride here."
"Well, it's safe enough for me and my children. Good bye."
I left feeling glad I was changing to the Wednesday class. Because then I would feel like I could never have my dad drive me to the Monday class if he wanted too. I don't know what her specific grievance was. Was it really the weather? Was it my blindness? Was it that she just has that public transportation prejudice that a lot of people have? I don't know. But public transportation is a good thing for people like me and for everybody. I get sick of people acting like they would rather die than set foot on a bus. Or like it is so low class to take public transportation. I do understand the convenience of cars, but there is a huge price tag for cars. From gas to real estate for parking garages to environmental pollutants to noise pollution. I'm not saying everyone should give up their car. I don't want D or my dad to give up driving (they give me lots of rides.) But it just seems like occasionally it wouldn't hurt a person to jump on a bus to get somewhere. It is a respectable thing; not a fate worse than death.
But other than that, the kids and I had a good day, the class was fun. I know that Naim will take off in a couple of weeks and join in some of the activities. Meanwhile, Aaron will have explored every inch of the place, including all the other children's noses. (That's his thing right now, touching noses.)
Hi, I have 2-month old twin boys and have been enjoying reading your blog. The photos are adorable too! Anyway, this sounds like a case of drive-by parenting to me. Not that it matters, but I think that what your doing sounds fine. It's weird how people feel they have a right to tell you how to live your life by masking it in a "for the good of the children" excuse. We live in NYC and don't have a car, and my family and inlaws are just beside themselves. There's an underlying tone of disapproval that we're somehow punishing our children by depriving them of such an "advantage" or it's unsafe for them to go on the subway. Please. Not to say we'll never have a car, but that is really no one's business.
Posted by: Julie | January 10, 2006 at 06:35 AM
Not to mention, RAIN DOESN'T MAKE PEOPLE SICK! Germs make people sick.
I cannot get Cole, my mother or my mother-in-law to realize this. Nor to realize that walking barefoot on the kitchen floor in the winter will ALSO not make you sick...
Posted by: shannon | January 10, 2006 at 09:29 PM