Discrimination Against Working Moms

I am a working mom. I am lucky that over the summers, I can enjoy a brief amount of time as a stay at home mom, but for the majority of the year, I work full time. This is a decision we had to make, and it works for us. Unfortunately, other people often neglect to remember that some mothers do not have the ability to stay home. Let me explain...

Evan loves being active (as most toddlers are). Recently he's been trying to stand on his head, take dives head first off the couch, and flip over us when we're sitting on the floor. Although I really liked what Gymboree did for Evan, I am looking for something more. I would love for him to participate in more of a "gym" atmosphere rather than the sing-song methods at Gymboree. I want a place where he can jump on trampolines, roll around on mats, and jump into foam pits. The first place I thought of was an actual gymnastics gym. I looked into several in the area, and they do offer parent-child classes for infants and toddlers. I thought, "perfect," sign us up. Then I looked at the schedule. Every class for children his age are offered in the mornings, none in the evenings. Then I looked into a place called "My Gym," which is similiar to Gymboree, but it focuses more on the gym part instead of the muscial part. Again, nothing offered in the evenings. I enountered the same problem in Tinley's Park District programs. I know there are plenty of other working moms that want to do special activities with their child. Why aren't there classes available to us? I'm very annoyed and frustrated. I guess we may be heading back to Gymboree until next summer.

Speaking of Evan being an active toddler, he had his first major "boo boo" Friday night. He was running around in his room before his bath, tripped and fell head first into the leg of his changing table. It bruised immediately from his hairline to his eyebrow and swelled to the size of a ping pong ball. He only cried for a few minutes, and then we brought him downstairs to put ice on it. Surprisingly he sat really well and let us hold the ice, and then he actually held the ice pack on his head for awhile. The swelling went down pretty quickly but we were paranoid for the rest of the night that he had a concussion. He had a small bump the next morning, and he still has a nice sized bruise on his forehead. I'm sure this is the first of many more to come.

It's hard to see in this picture, but check out the bruise above his right eye.

Evan after his most recent haircut.