Thursday, July 30, 2009

On Gymnastics and Socialism

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We just signed six of our children up for gymnastics at a local gym and they all started this week.

At first, I only signed up three of the oldest ones, and I got a fantastic rate, because the gym gives discounts for siblings. When they finished their first session and were SO excited about it, my husband suggested that maybe we could sign all of them up, except the baby. He wondered if we could suggest an amount that we could afford to pay and see if that would fly.

I was pretty sure that the gym didn't take suggestions since the prices were clearly posted and our suggestion wasn't even in that range, but my husband urged me to just give it a shot.

At first the gym owner thought I was JOKING when I told her how many kids we have. When she finally believed that they are all mine, she stated the price that is posted at the gym. I told her that the figure I asked about was as much as we could afford, so we wouldn't be able to enroll anyone else, but thanked her for her time. That's when she told me that she would be able to meet our figure!

I was stunned! I guess it never hurts to ask.

Anyway, today was the first session with all the kidlings and I sat outside the two way glass with the baby and giggled and stifled full fledged guffaws at the flailing arms and legs and cute little feet running by me. The little bitty guys are DARLING!

The teacher of the little bittys tries to get them to run to the other end of the gym by telling them, "If you beat me, you'll get a Skittle. Hurry, now. Run!" and then she pretends to try her best to beat them, but they, of course, win. After a few times, though some of the little guys catch on and begin to take their time getting down to the other end and the teacher still gives everyone a Skittle.

MaddieLynn says that reminds her of socialism. Everyone gets the prize and pretty soon no one is trying to win. Why try your best when even the slackers get the prize?

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5 comments:

Jamie said...

What a smart little crackerjack you have :)

Tracey said...

Sounds like you were able to get a great deal!

Noel said...

socialism is worming its way into so many aspects of life.....

Richard Fairhead said...

The problem is not socialism (which is a watered down version of what the early followers of Jesus practiced) but the whole concept of rewards. If motivation is based upon rewards then we are falling into the trap of self-centredness. We should not encourage our children to be motivated by reward but by giving and enjoying relationships. If we were as radical as the early followers of Jesus then socialism would not be a word we know in the 21st century since most of the world would be living in relationship with the Father and sharing with their fellow human beings His blessings.

Niki Jolene said...

Wow, you go girl! Way to get what you want for what you want!

:)

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