September 19th 2011 - Monkey Child

We’ve just completed our final session of Tumble Tots. There is partly a financial reason for stopping, what with football, judo, ballet, Cubs, Rainbows, and swimming lessons at school, for the other three – it is just all adding up, but mostly, it is because I have the most badly behaved child there,  and I despise being shown up. She doesn’t do a thing she is supposed to, crosses her arms and says “Don’t want to” at joining in the train, and “Don’t like that!” at the songs, and tops it all off by standing up in front of all the well behaved little children, sitting on their mum’s laps in the circle and blowing a big raspberry at the leader. Having said all that, she loves it – they all did.

Despite initially having viewed Tumble Tumble Tots, as in essence, a Dog’s Agility course for children, I approached our first session with all the enthusiasm of a first time Mum looking for an outlet for her toddler’s energy and something to do together. It also seemed infinitely preferable to standing outside in a freezing cold park all winter.

I will never know whether Tumble Tots just honed my children’s natural born climbing ability or whether it gave them the idea in the first place, but it did teach them to climb with confidence and how to climb safely.

I won’t be pointing the finger at Tumble Tots when my 2 year old triumphantly stands on the draining board brandishing an empty flowerpot  and once full bottle of washing up liquid, the contents of both, which fill the sink. I won’t despair when my toddlers can scale stair gates or when the bars of their cot no longer imprison them, at a fearfully young age. I won’t pull my hair out when there seems to be no cupboard too high, as long as there are movable pieces of furniture or toy boxes to help their ascent. I’ll try to keep calm when the nappy cream on top of that very tall cupboard still proves to be within reach,( by way of toddler bed, changing table and small pile of books,) and is consequently smeared over every available surface. When my little one is climbing over monkey bars, 2 metres up, and in a potty training era, has the balance and co-ordination to poo from her position at the top of the climbing frame, or even when she teaches her friend to climb up into the basin, I will just laugh and be a teensy bit proud!