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09/26/2007: "So How About Gymboree?"
Um, no.
Turns out that our local Gymboree is staffed by people I wouldn't trust to take out the garbage on time, let alone guide my child into a Wonderland of Social Self-Discovery. Or whatever it is Gymboree proports to do. I wouldn't know.
As regular readers know, I signed us up for a trial class at our local Gymboree this past Sunday. I'm all gung-ho about getting Dessa socialized, since she's an only child and there are no cousins, etc. of an appropriate age for her to play with. Basically Dave and I need to make friends and thus, make social contacts for the baby. Dave and I are not the most social people, so it's all as much for us to meet people as it is for her to have some playmates. I feel really strongly about this. I'm not the most comfortable person around others and I would like to help my baby over that, if possible.
So I was really ready to sign her up if she even remotely liked the class. On Saturday we got a message from Gymboree. A perky little chicklet (couldn't have been more than 17) was calling to confirm our Level 1 class at 9 PM.
The hell?
Common sense should have told our caller that 9 PM on a Sunday night was a ridiculous time for a class aimed at 0-6 month olds and their parents. The website, the confirmation emails, everything I'd seen said 9 AM, which made a lot more sense. Dave called to check into this oddness.
I only heard one side of the conversation, but it was enough. After Dave introduced himself and explained that he was calling because the message mentioned a 9 PM time and he thought the class was in the morning, things went something like this:
"So it's not at night, right?... She's signed up for Level 3?... What?... 1 PM?... I don't think so. She's only 4 months old... She needs level 1... 4 months old, yes.... so the class is actually at 9 am, right?... the Level 1 class?... At 9 AM in the morning?... Level 1, yes... Alright then. 9 AM.... Thank you."
I wasn't feeling confident.
On Sunday morning I actually had to wake Dave up to get to the class. Dess had awakened in plenty of time to eat, get changed and be pleasant so we were golden with her. 15 minutes before we needed to leave, I woke Dave up and dragged him off to the class. (To be fair, he was very pleasant about getting up and going but I felt bad because he's not big on sleeping in and here I was, waking him up).
I had a bad feeling when we got to the mall. 9 AM on a Sunday is slow at any mall (except on Christmas Eve) and this morning was no exception. When we got to Gymboree... you guessed it. It was empty.
The bubble-head behind the counter told us that, in fact, the Sunday morning Level 1 class had nobody at all signed up for it and that there was one family on a waiting list for when the class actually started. But, you know. No class, like... now.
Why, then, we inquired, were we called the day before to confirm a class that nobody was signed up for? Why did we get a confirmation for a class that wasn't going to be held? Why did someone bother to ensure we would show up for a class with no teacher?
The bubble-head demurred and told us, weakly, that we were welcome to go inside and use the equipment. Um... nifty, except that I don't know what most of it is good for with a 4 month old and also... the hell? Unsupervised, uninformed use of equipment? If I was a more stupid person I would have used the stuff, hoped for an accident and then sued for millions. Fortunately, I put my child's welfare over the size of my bank account.
I'm completely unimpressed, if you can't tell. I'm sure there are Gymboree franchises out there that are well-run, organized and have their act together. Ours isn't one of them. It's too bad, too, because I was really read to sign up. A regular, structured time together with other people around sounds really good about now. I'll keep looking for those opportunities. But I don't suspect I'll be willing to pay Gymboree prices for them.
Replies: 1 Comment - Go read it!
on Friday, September 28th, Vicki said
OK that sucks big time. You'd think that the corporate people would keep a closer eye on their franchises. My sister and her other mom friends ended up at My Gym after their Gymboree class ended up being scheduled at a weird time. They really liked it, maybe that would be an option.
http://my-gym.com/
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