Kid and Me Classes

My son’s in first grade, and it’s his spring break. I don’t love traveling during spring break, given how crowded attractions can get and how miserable airports can be. I prefer to save the travel for off months and arrange fun things for us to do near home instead. Because it’s just him and me, and because I want to take advantage of the fact that he’s not yet embarrassed to be seen with me in public (I have another four or five years, right?), we’re pretty much attached at the hip during times like these. It’s all well and good, but what happens when I need a workout? He knows how to run me around in the park, that’s for sure, but sometimes it’s just not enough (…)

My son’s in first grade, and it’s his spring break. I don’t love traveling during spring break, given how crowded attractions can get and how miserable airports can be. I prefer to save the travel for off months and arrange fun things for us to do near home instead. Because it’s just him and me, and because I want to take advantage of the fact that he’s not yet embarrassed to be seen with me in public (I have another four or five years, right?), we’re pretty much attached at the hip during times like these. It’s all well and good, but what happens when I need a workout? He knows how to run me around in the park, that’s for sure, but sometimes it’s just not enough.
I wish my gym offered a class we could take together—something in between the Mommy and Me classes we used to go to when he was a toddler and the grown-up ones I attend on my own. I know there are creative instructors out there who have the know-how (and the energy) to provide both him and me with the structured exercise we each need, while also making it engaging for both of us. Anything involving a ball would probably work.
Equally appealing would be classes for him that coincides with the ones I want to take. Right now, the gym offers drop-off babysitting, but, as he often reminds me, he’s not a baby. Again, I need something to fill in the space after the toddler years and before he’s old enough to spend a couple hours on his own. A class that drills him in soccer or baseball techniques, teaches healthy habits, or just offers a chance to play a rousing game of dodge ball, gaga, or something he’s never heard of before would be perfect.
On the practical end, arranging just a week-and-a-half’s worth of such classes might not be so easy, but it can be done. Your facility management software program can help you slot the classes in and figure out who would be the best instructors; it could also make targeted marketing to the right demographic a breeze. With three or four long school vacations each year, plus shorter ones and all of summer break, there are a lot of parents out there who would instantly sign up for Kid and Me classes or well-timed kids’ classes. The chance to get in a good work-out while still being on-duty would be irresistible.