Don’t Push Yoga On Your Kid
I was a late-night gong event at Golden Bridge Yoga once and a mom had her 3-year-old there with her. The event was three hours, from 7-10 pm, and involved some intense Kundalini Yoga and chanting followed by a long gong relaxation. The kid was actually quieter than the noisy woman behind her, so the kid acting out wasn’t the issue. But I was really concerned that a mom felt she needed to bring such a young child into a late-night yoga event for adults.
Imagine if every parent brought a 3-year-old to a late-night yoga event - there would be pandemonium! But beyond that - these kids are too little too appreciate or care about these types of events. All that little girl wanted to do was sleep and that’s precisely what she did, even with all the chanting and gonging going on around her.
There are yoga programs for kids. Keep your kids in them. Don’t take your kid to adult yoga class. It’s in the least possibly going to bore the kid or turn them off from yoga. At worst, if you force your child to follow your intense yoga belief system, you may push them into the opposite direction.
Consider Laurette Willis, founder of “PraiseMoves,” a Christian co-op of yoga incorporating renamed yoga poses so they aren’t so darn Satanic. Go read this page on her website. If that’s not reason to stop pushing your young kid into the New Age, I don’t know what is. Willis started doing yoga at age 7 with her mom and was hanging around ashrams at the age of 10. Now she’s a bitter ex-New Ager with a bone to pick, and has gotten coo-coo for cocoa puffs over her rigid brand of fundamentalist Christianity.
(And you, too, can turn your child into an angry fundamentalist Christian, complete with 1980s clothes and hair-do!)
Intense meditation and spiritual practices are not meant for children, folks!
So please, don’t force your kid into your adult New Age practice. A little religious structure for a child is OK. Taking your kid to a church is OK. But don’t take your young kid to a night-time Kundalini Yoga class and have them try to chant to the point where their brain is exploding. Their nervous systems aren’t fully developed yet - they should not be pushed energetically in the way adults can be pushed.
Yes, I realize that Gurmukh herself loves children and does a lot of prenatal work at Golden Bridge Yoga. And yet, surprisingly, I don’t see kids overrunning the regular classes there. That’s probably for a good reason.
I have to disagree with you on this one. Sorry. The fact a classmate brought her 3 year old to class with her does not mean the said women is trying to force yoga on the child. Perhaps she could not arrange a babysitter, maybe she’s a single mom.
I attend yoga trance parties that are child friendly and those can last anywhere from 2 hours to 5. I think it’s nice to allow children to be part of the yoga experience. Yes there can be those people such as Ms. Willis who do feel it was a negative experience but on the same token we don’t know what kind of exact experiences she had growing up that has made her question yoga.
I might add that that site gave me a few chuckles. The renaming of the poses was hilarious. It’s amazing that people will try to demonize everything! But what ever way you want to get your “om” on is cool with me.
Hi Bridgette,
In the case of the 3-year-old, please note that I said the class was a THREE HOUR late-night event that ended at 10 pm. A 3-year-old should be in bed by then, never mind that the event was not a fun dance party, but a very intense set of kundalini exercises and meditations.
There are appropriate kids yoga classes that are designed for children. Taking a toddler to an adult meditation event where the kid probably won’t get home and into bed until 11 pm is not right. Never mind it’s rude to the rest of us adults who paid good money for an adult experience and would prefer not to be disrupted by crying babies and disruptive children. (To me, taking a baby to an adult movie is also rude.)
That poor little girl was so obviously wiped out and wanted to sleep. Which she did. But it was not right to have a tired child having to curl up on a yoga mat with a blanket with chanting and gonging all around her, when she would probably prefer to be in her own bed. Kids get cranky late at night if they don’t get some rest.
So…if you can’t find a babysitter, stay home! It’s only a few years, really, until the kid is old enough and you can have your late-night events again.
[...] they understand that kids 3 and under should be in bed by 8 pm? As I’ve written here before, I don’t think toddlers and babies should be brought along to late-night yoga events. To me, it’s pure selfishness on the part of the parent. It’s not fair to the child, [...]