Hi everyone,
This is such a first world problem it's laughable really, but I'm puzzling over it a fair amount.
DD has gone to swimming lessons since she was a year old (she's now 3.5) and really enjoys them. I work a 4-day week, so part of my day at home with DD includes the swimming lessons. For a long time, it also included meeting friends at a soft play centre on the same morning, which DD also loved.
Now the friends we used to meet don't go to the soft play any more (due to changes in working days), so if I do go I'm on my own with DD. She still loves it, but it's as boring as anything for me.
Swimming lessons have got more difficult as DD has got older - the lessons themselves are fine, but the timing means that either we do nothing else at all during the day apart from swimming and soft play (so no visits to friends, no errands or outings, as we're never back in time) or we miss the lessons. The classes have moved around a bit and we're now the only ones in our class who weren't in a particular NCT group - I've tried to be sociable with the other mums but it's not happening really, and the other children are much younger (think not 2 yet) than DD so don't interact much with her either. This doesn't bother DD at all but is a bit tedious for me.
Now I have a chance to switch swimming lessons to one that would suit me much better, as it's first thing in the morning. Only thing is that it clashes with the soft play hours. On days when DD and I have done something different to the soft play she's moped for ages about wanting to go there instead, so I know she'd be disappointed about missing it. She's happy to miss the swimming lessons for a splash around in the public pool, but it's not the same thing - she will categorically refuse to do any of the 'swimming' with me although she enjoys it at the lessons.
So I could:
a) do what I'm doing: DD is happy as a clam, I'm bored out of my head and not getting anything done;
b) switch lessons and be able to do Other Things, which is great for me but I know that DD will complain;
c) cancel the swimming lessons altogether, do Other Things and suck up the soft play tedium until DD gets bored or goes to school, whatever happens first, with nagging feeling that DD is missing out on learning a useful skill that she quite enjoyed.
What would you/ have you done? Apologies for the non-problem..