I just got home from the gym and I am feeling good! Between the elliptical and the treadmill, I got in 6 miles, which is a mile more than I usually do. I have been trying to stick to a schedule and work out 5 days a week while Mason and Camryn are in school, which usually works out great. Natalie goes in the gym child care program for an hour and a half, which gives her a chance to socialize with other kids her age and gives me a break from her usual constant chatter. :) But with spring break coming up in few weeks, I will have to make other plans because while the child care room takes children up to 9 yrs.old,which should be perfect because my kids are 3,7 and 9, they DO NOT take children with special needs. Soooo, while I could very easily drop off Natalie and Mason and go for a jog, it might be a little cumbersome running on the treadmill while holding onto Camryn! I have talked to the ladies who work there and asked if the YMCA offers any child care programs for special needs children and they just shook their heads, explaining how that would require all kinds of special training and room setup,etc., so no, there is no such thing. I wasn't surprised at all, as I have run into this issue in several other situations as well, i.e. Vacation Bible school, story time at the library, etc. Basically all the typical extra-curricular things setup for kids ...as long as they are "normal".
Now, I am not saying "Oh poor me, I can't go to the gym for a week because I have an atypical child", although it does suck, but it really upsets me because as if moms of kids in general don't need an outlet like working out, mothers of children with special needs REALLY need an outlet, I mean REALLY! And thank God Camryn is old enough to go to school during the day so I can go in the morning. If she were three and I wanted to work out, which she was and I did, I would have to buy a treadmill that took up half the house and then strap her into the stroller and put on a Baby Einstein, which as we all know, lasts 30 minutes, but by the time I got it started, got on the treadmill, got on my headphones, and got walking, that annoying lady who came up with Baby Einstein came on the video, which again we all know means it is almost over, and my acutal workout time added up to about 10 minutes. I know this because I did this for about a week before I gave up and just bought bigger pants!
So, for all those women out there who want to join the gym and be like all the other moms in their cute gym outfits, smiling big as they wave good bye for an hour or two to their little one, savoring this alone time, just what do we do if we happen to have a child that cannot go into the child care program? Call a babysitter? Yeah, but that costs money and it isn't easy to find sitters who are qualified. Wait until your husband gets home to go? Yeah, I guess, if you want to go run a 5k at 7:00p.m AFTER you have chaufferred your kids, done mounds of laundry, swiffered the house, put away mounds of laundry, made breakfast and lunch and dinner, then cleaned up breakfast, then lunch then dinner, helped with homework, washed 3 heads of hair, brushed 3 heads of hair, done more laundry, etc. Who has the energy for that? I know what you do, you just don't go and are reminded once again that your child is different and you can't do "those things".
So seriously, I am curious, are there any gyms that cater to families of special needs kids? And if not, why??? These parents need to work out and have some "alone"time just as much , if not more, than the average and I think it stinks that most of them can't! I'm totally on this! I am going to make it my mission to either find a gym that has or will implement a childcare program for special needs children,and if I can't then I will start one myself. I wonder if I can have it open by Spring Break? lol
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