Getting Happy-Clappy at Gymboree
Toddler Distractions
It’s freezing outside and the swings are covered in frost. My 13-month-old and I leave the park for Gymboree, an indoor play center for babies and toddlers.
Most parents probably know these places. McDonald’s-like play areas with lessons. Gymboree’s motto is “Building Confident Learners” but from what I can see, it’s about giving moms with babies something to do before meeting other moms with babies at Starbucks.
In the big bright room is another mom and her daughter, 22-month-old Gymboree regular Izzy. Our girls enjoy a few minutes of free play, but when it’s clear no one else is coming, the perky young instructor calls us into a corner. She’s all smiley and happy-clappy as she insists we sit cross-legged in a circle.
We’re not halfway through the first song when Izzy slips off to play on a rocking boat across the room. My daughter follows and so it’s just me, Izzy’s mom and Happy Clappy — let’s call her Vicky — sitting on the mat singing rhyming songs.
I’m feeling ridiculous. And so I beg my daughter to return and join the fun. But she’s not interested.
Vicky hands us castanets. The other mother and I are told to pound them in rhythm on the mats, and then together, and then against our heads.
