Tummy Time

Andrew and I had our first Tummy Time class through the Park District that week. I will share the story of registering for the Tummy Time class, because it epitomizes for me the scary trap of competition that is easy to fall into as a parent. The local park district sent out its schedule of fall classes in the mail in early August, and I was excited to register for a few as a way to meet people in our new community since we moved to the suburbs shortly before Andrew was born.

So when the park district catalog came in the mail, I noticed that it said "Registration begins August 13 at 7 a.m. Doors open at 6 a.m. Mail and fax registrations are processed after all walk-in registrations." I thought it was some kind of joke that people would get in line at 6 a.m. to register for recreational activities, but a phone call to the park district office confirmed that this is indeed the case and that getting into classes is most competitive for younger children (perhaps because the parents are desperate to get out of the house). I set the alarm for 5:30 a.m. and arrived bleary-eyed at 6:10 a.m. only to find that there were already 24 people in front of me to register. The first thing I noticed was that I was a complete sucker for going myself, because the vast majority of people in line were husbands who had probably been given the choice of staying home with the kids or getting Dunkin' Donuts and reading the paper while waiting in this ridiculous line. The second thing I realized was that I was furtively trying to see which classes the guy next to me had written down on his paper, because I was worried that husbands 1-24 in line had been sent by wives who were at home in bed with their newborns and were desperate to get one of the 10 slots in Tummy Time.

At 6:30, a park district employee started making his way down the line checking people's drivers licenses to verify that they lived within the city limits of the suburb. Apparently people actually try to sneak in from other suburbs. By 6:50, the line stretched all the way down the hall and around the corner with at least 200 people in it. The registration window opened for business promptly at 7:00, and the woman behind the counter actually time-stamped each form in the order received.

Did I mention that this is all for fun activities like soccer leagues and yoga? I hated myself for buying into the competition by showing up in person to register and being a part of it all, and yet I also felt for the first time the competitive feeling all parents must get when resources are limited--I want my child to have the opportunity to participate. Am I going to end up like that mom in Texas who hired a hit man to kill the mother of another girl who was competing with her daughter for a spot on the cheerleading squad? I think there is still a line somewhere there that we have not come close to crossing.

So after all that, on the first day of Tummy Time class a dad and his baby strolled in 30 minutes late and apologized, explaining that he had just decided to sign up for the class on a whim that morning. It was a good lesson to me not to buy into the hype. I could have stayed in bed all morning on registration day.

The pictures above are of AJ playing with his new Tummy Time toy that works like a lazy Susan he can spin around on while looking at the various activities on the flower petal mat.