Gymnastics Good Times

Have you ever signed your son up for gymnastics?  If so, did he gaze around the room while the instructor was talking, and then take off towards the balance beams when the rest of the class was supposed to be jumping from butterfly to butterfly on the floor?  ME TOO. 

I am in danger of making some gender-biased assertions here.  I’m just going to do it.  I think it is maybe easier to take your girl kid to gymnastics.  That is why I was really hoping that Noah’s teacher would see me there with Emma a few weeks ago.  I was like, “See?  See?  This is my kid too!  I have one that can do it!!!”   

I guess it’s not that Noah can’t do it.  It’s just that he seems interested in pursuing different things while we are there.  He is easily distracted by all of the contraptions and I’m sure that the scientist in him is trying to figure out how things work when he is staring at them instead of paying attention to the teacher. 

A few weeks ago he admitted to me that he and his buddy were engaged in some very intellectual discussions while they were having their lesson in the “small gym”, which is off-limits to parents.  It’s a good thing, probably, because I didn’t have to witness this conversation:

Best Buddy: “Who FARTED?”

Noah:  “We’re in the TOOT Museum”.

Ew.  Gross.  I totally would not want to go to the Toot Museum, let alone do gymnastics in it.  I can imagine that if Emma was there she would be doing a flexed-arm hang that would be the winner of the Canada Fitness Test, and she certainly would not be talking about Toot Museums.

I suppose the gymnastics performance could be just related to the skill levels and focusing abilities of my two different children, and has nothing to do with gender.  The fact that gymnastics behavior is not gender-related is proven by “Who Farted”’s younger brother, who follows all instructions perfectly and performs very well.    It is also demonstrated by the fact that all the girls who take gymnastics in the Toot Museum with Noah don’t really seem to have great skills.

What do you think?  Has your boy ever embarrassed you at gymnastics?  Better yet, has your girl ever done that?