Monday Music Class = Bump and the White Girls

I went to Lumpyhead's music class this morning. It was very . . . girlie.

Bump's descriptions of music class have not been heavy on the details. (For instance, I found out today that the songs have choreography. What? Here I thought I was coming to my first class well-prepared.)

Bump tells me only general things, and has described some of the other children. I can confirm that Margaret is a little goofy-looking (and that tiny ponytail coming out of the top of her head isn't helping things on that front); Catherine stares blankly at me, too; and Raleigh's eyes are, in fact, way too big for her head.

I thought he was just being flighty when he couldn't remember the little girls' names, but I couldn't keep track either. Ella? Emma? Elizabeth? Good lord, there are like ten of them, all with little blond ringlets.

Bump has mentioned that the class seems estrogen-heavy. It's not that he assumed there would be other dads at these things, but nearly all the other children in Lumpyhead's class are of the girl variety. There was only one other boy there.

It was also very white. One of the things I like best about Arlington is its diversity. That diversity is not reflected in these rec programs, which I find a little disappointing. I'm not sure what I expected, exactly. There is a fee for the classes, and they're held in the middle of the weekday, so who did I think was going to show up?

We went to the adjacent playground afterward, where Lumpyhead played with some more white kids. At least their nannies had some color, so I no longer felt like I'd been teleported to North Dakota.

Bump dropped Lumpyhead and me off at class, and took Lula with him on some errands. I heard glowing reports about how well Bump manages both kids while still participating in the songs. I bet no one gushes to Bump about my performance this week. Not that I was a disaster - there was no foam pit, after all - but I only had one child with me, and I'm a woman.

There were lots of inquiries about Bump and Lula's whereabouts. When I revealed that Bump had taken Lula on a Target run, the instructor told me, "you have to clone that man." I pointed to Lumpyhead and told her I had tried, but had to settle for only half his DNA.