Girls Stuff

The Boy loves to dance.  When he hears a good beat, he starts grooving, sometimes getting his whole body into it, sometimes vocalizing.  It's not just the music he loves:  he loves dance.  The other night we flipped through Dancing With the Stars on our way to the DVR'd Sesame Street and The Boy stared, rapt.  I flipped it back.  Not only did he respond to the ballroom dancing, there was a considerable amount of ballet on this episode.  He loved it.  He cried when it was over.  We played it for him again and again.  The Boy loves Dance.

So there is no question:  when he's old enough, around age 3, he will take dance.  I had already planned to enroll him in dance class because I grew up taking dance -- and so did my brother -- and we enjoyed the heck out of it.  But it's good to know that he is probably going to enjoy taking dance as much as I enjoy the idea of his taking dance.

But gender roles, even in 2012, are tough.  One of The Working Dad's co-workers expressed concern about her son, perhaps, being the only boy in dance class.  And so she was a bit trepidatious about enrolling him.  The Working Dad, in his wonderful way, told his co-worker that her son could be in the class with The Boy and then he wouldn't be the only boy in class.

Still, 20+ years after my brother's last dance class, taking dance lesson's is still considered "girls stuff," Billy Elliot notwithstanding.

We put our girls on little league teams now, and we say that it empowers them.  But this can be empowering too (watch the whole thing, especially the guy in the orange t-shirt):  virtuoses des tours en l'air.

I'm so glad that The Boy has his uncle to look to, who will understand how hard it is to do a triple tour en l'air, and that it is as every bit an athletic endeavor as making a touchdown . . . more, even.  Mom and Dad will be cheering all the way.