As I've written before, we're quite fond of the little preschool Q attends. Of course, nothing is perfect. A few weeks ago, they hosted a parent education night with the most misleading title ever. "Parents: Building Support For Yourself." We figured they'd have some good tips for balancing work and home life, trading childcare with friends, or otherwise engaging the community around us. Totally wrong.
It was an introductory class on yoga. Yoga. Which if you think about it, is kind of "building support" in a physical way, but really not what we expected.
By the time SwingDaddy and I figured out the topic, it was too late to leave. We were crouched on tiny preschool chairs in a semi-circle with a bunch of other parents, facing a highly enthusiastic instructor. Some of our Mommy Group friends were on the other side of the circle, and we waved at each other, wondering if this was going to be a big waste of time.
Actually, it wasn't. We practiced a bunch of breathing exercises, which were nothing new, but still relaxing, and did some stretches. Where we got in trouble was when the teacher, who was a nice, mystical type, started trying to get scientific and tie the principles of yoga into biological reactions.
I generally just tune out this kind of thing – I can recall a motivational speaker that was trying to explain how our emotional intelligence was tied to the amygdala in the brain and doing a pretty valiant job, but I'm content to let them get "close enough" on the science and use the concept as a metaphor, if the purpose of the class isn't actually scientific.
This instructor started getting off track discussing the fight or flight syndrome and asking the audience questions. We were trying to all help her by answering in a way that would help the lesson, but we couldn't figure out where she was going and it was getting confusing. SwingDaddy couldn't help himself at one point and had to point out that while she kept on referring to cortisol, it was actually ephinephine that was the hormone under discussion.
Then she started asking what happens to chameleons when they go into the sun, and someone answered, "Change color?" and we spent the rest of the session trying not to make eye contact with anyone lest we burst out giggling. YF and Andrew's Mommy almost had a stroke smothering their laughs while Tfence looked on tolerantly.
We thanked the teacher politely after class and escaped outside like naughty little kids. We laughed and snickered and caught up with each other – building support for ourselves indeed, if not in the way described in class.