I’ve Got the Working Mom Blues

The Olympics has done wonders for my desire to get Jack involved in sports.  Our local YMCA very wisely timed the arrival of their fall catalog of course offerings so that I could peruse it while watching Gabby Douglas showing the world how awesome she is.  (USA! USA!)  I was excited to see plenty of gymnastics offering for girls and boys as young as 18 months.  I was ready to sign Jack up until I saw the class schedule:

Tiny Tots Tumbling:  Tuesdays from 10:00 a.m. to 10:45.

Ah.  Let me check my schedule.  Oh, yes…I’M WORKING THAT DAY.  You know, like I do every weekday.

This happens all the time.  Storytime at the library?  Wednesday afternoons.  Mommy and Me art?  Thursday mornings.  Local moms and strollers running group?  Nine a.m.

Apparently parent/child activities are for stay at home parents only.

I have checked high and low for parent/child activities on the weekends, with little luck.  The YMCA does offer swim classes on Saturday mornings, and I am extremely grateful for that.  But other activities – music, tumbling, dance, art – weekdays during work hours only.

Why?

I don’t believe it is some kind of anti-working-mom conspiracy, although sometimes the cards really do feel like they are stacked up against us.  Presumably, the lack of evening and weekend activities is profit-driven.  If there was a demand for these activities, places would offer them, right?  But why is there little interest in after work parent/child activities?  I’m certain that other working moms want to do organized activities with their kids.

It is a mystery to me.

Are we too tired after work to engage in directed activities?

Are the demands of home life – making dinner, catching up on the day with the spouse, cleaning, etc. (things that studies tell us still fall to women even when both spouses work full time)  too much to leave room for other things?

I suspect a combination of the two.  I would guess that you could ask any working mom if, given that they had enough time and energy to do so, whether they’d like to spend time in organized activities with their children, they’d give an enthusiastic yes.  But that’s not our reality.  In reality, weekday evenings are a blur of dinner prep, hugs, washing dishes, doing a few loads of laundry, keeping the house reasonably clean, baths, bedtime stories, and a little internet time before bed.  We just don’t have the time.

Personally, I say screw the dishes, my son needs to work on his backbend.

Readers, what are your thoughts?  Why do you think activities after work hours are so limited?  Or do you have a different experience – do you have better luck finding weekend and weeknight activities?