Dancing Delight

I won’t say I’m 100% ‘progressive’, but I can get on board with a lot of common trends. Chief among them: the idea that there are no hobbies that are restricted by gender or age. If you’re a 42-year-old man and you want to take up knitting, then you go for it. If you’re a twelve-year-old girl with a passion for fencing, then…awesome. If you enjoy it, and you’re wearing protective gear (i.e. not hurting anyone with your mad fencing skills) then I see no problem with it.

I just see parents of kids my age getting all huffy because their kids went to a birthday party that had them learning about dance fitness and I’m wondering when we all fell through the time portal to the Puritan era.

So, it all started with this one kids birthday party venue. Strathpine is very close to my house and I just happened to pass by this play centre one day. Having a party venue close to home is a big deal because we’re not a big suburb, and parents have been wanting something like this for a while. Now party planners of all sorts have popped up to meet demand, and with the small community that we are, hiring a party planner to give your child a wonderful birthday experience is now just the done thing. There’s an element of keeping up with the Neighbours, I suppose.

So Veronica Berry had her eighth birthday party and invited everyone from her school year- my son was there as well- and they came back saying that they’d had a great time learning about healthy eating, the effects of protein and why drinking lots of water is good for you. And then… a short Zumba session. Which people are just freaking out about like we’re that one town in Footloose. I guess we ARE that one town in Footloose, if people are treating a bit of dance fitness like it’s the coming of the apocalypse. Note to self…just drive to an indoor play centre down near Strathpine if I want my kids to have any fun. Apparently that’s not allowed here.

-Jenny