Juggling Schedules

In most respects, K and I are so on the same page as parents.  But the areas where we are not are always so wildly divergent that it makes finding that common ground a challenge.  We worked our way through the mine field of one such difference this morning --before 6 a.m. no less. LOL 

I believe that kids need chances to explore the things that interest them or the areas where they have talents or abilities that they wish to explore.  For Chet, that was guitar lessons for many years.  He loved the one on one time with his teacher, and though he never really became "good" with the guitar, it was a source of pleasure for him.  He also had swimming lessons for water safety and took karate lessons up through purple belt (which is about 3 years of study).  Rob had swim lessons for safety, 3 years of basketball league, a year of baseball league and away camp for three years.  KC has tried dance, and had a preschool music class.  Lissa had music and now gymnastics.

With the exception of the music class, I am the person who has ferried the kids to all of these things.  K hates sports and she also believes that kids don't need these experiences.  I know she didn't have them growing up.  I didn't necessarily have all the experiences I might have wanted growing up, but I had in reality a fair amount of them.  I had dance, I had horseback riding lessons, and a summer at a 4H camp all stand out as strong childhood memories. 

KC would like to try some art lessons and I have a friend who lives about 40 minutes away who is re-opening her art school after a couple years hiatus.  She is a very talented artist but also a mom --and most importantly to me, not the type of artist who is going to have a "right way" and a "wrong way" to create the art.  At 6 I want the exposures to be to artistic styles and not as rigid as they are, say at the art museum in the next town.

The problem is that the class will start at 4:30 in the afternoon on a Thursday.  I don't get out of work till 4 and by the time I get home, we would not get to my friend's home for the group art class in time.  So I asked K if she was willing to take him.

To say she is underwhelmed by this prospect would be to put it rather lightly.  I offered to trade her taking Lissa to gymnastics (which requires I skip lunch and leave work early one day a week) if she wished and then I could switch my "no lunch" day and take KC to the class.  She refuses to do the gymnastics class as she is concerned that she might hurt her back spotting Elisabeth.  I suppose there is the remote possibility of that, though truthfully you almost don't have to spot Lissa.  She is incredibly agile on all the apparatus.

So we at length reached a compromise.  (hallelujah, angels blowing trumpets here!)  She will take KC to the art class and we will only do it for 3 months of the year Sept-Nov.  Then if he wishes to do it again either next year or in the spring, she is open to that as long as we are not commuting that distance in the winter.  I am so glad we have reached a compromise--and KC is super excited over the art classes.