Sun Salute

First yoga class went off without a hitch. I say this because I had some misgivings about not asking the instructor ahead of time about bringing along a couple of kids. From experience, I was sure she would say no, but I was also sure that if I simply brought them, she would see that they wouldn’t disrupt the class. So I brought them, introduced them, and they sat quietly in one corner of the room, reading library books.

At the end of the hour long class, several of the other yoga students complimented the kids on their “good behaviour”, and the instructor invited them to join us next time.

I thought about it all on the walk home. The kids watched a group of earnest adults deeply involved in meditative excercise, they were introduced to people that they hadn’t met before, and they participated in the polite chatter at the end of the class. There were no other kids there, so they weren’t relegated to some sort of special kids section, and they behaved themselves accordingly. They were respectful observers. Which I knew they would be. I guess, as a society, though, that we don’t see kids in this way. We don’t include them in adult activities because we worry that they’ll be disruptive, and in segregating them from adults, we don’t allow them the opportunity to be in situations in which they learn to be respectful.

I think it’s important for children to see what adults do, and realize that adults do things that have nothing to do with the needs of kids. I think it’s healthy for them to sometimes be in situations in which they’re not the center of attention.