Sundays are for cross-training

I took Sam with me to the gym tonight. Not perhaps my first choice of what to do, but Gabe was (supposedly) in desperate need of a nap, Sam had homework that needed to be done, and Eric was too worn down to try to manage both Gabe’s loud protestations and Sam’s need of “encouragement,” if not actual assistance. There’s no kid care at the gym on Sundays, but there are couches and tables and quiet, so I bundled up Sam with his books, and off we went.

I power-walked up steep inclines on the treadmill while Sam filled in his homework papers, and he finished pretty quickly. I’d told him to bring a game or something else that would occupy him, but he’d assured me that his science book would do the trick. Right. So there I was, trying to do strength work, while my eight-year-old stared in fascination and begged to be allowed to try the machines himself. I managed to fob him off for a while with some crunches on an exercise ball, but then he was more drawn to the punching bag hanging from the ceiling. Nobody was using it, so I let him paw at it for a few moments. Another man came over a few minutes later, strapped on gloves, and started punching, which had Sam in jaw-dropped awe for nearly the entire rest of the time we were there.

Sadly, there are no kiddie boxing gyms in our area.

Sam still wants to know when he might be allowed to use the gym like me, which is a potentially good thing; after all, a huge reason why we do this thing is to model it for our children, right? On the other hand, I’d much prefer him to be drawn to going out for a run than to lifting barbells or whatnot. He’s eight; I can’t imagine body building is a terribly appropriate way for him to be spending his physical energy. Also, I let him stretch with me when I was finished, and after seeing how well he followed my suggestions and the guidelines illustrated on the stretch-assisting device, the notion of the damage he’d be able to do to himself in short order while lifting weights is truly terrifying.

Anyway, it’s probably a moot point. Correcting his homework afterward and seeing the wild guesses he was making while distracted by the environment has shown me all I need to know about how likely I am to take him there for his homework time in the future…