I wanted to find a music class for toddlers because my son has loved music since he was in the womb. He has a chronic illness that kept us concerned about COVID the last few years, but we finally felt safe enough to take him to an indoor music class when Monroeville Music opened. We signed him up for Music Together, advertised as a class from birth to 5 years. Our son was approximately a month away from turning three, so right smack dab in the middle of the age range.
My son is a normal toddler - he gets excited, he dances, he wants to be around other kids, and he is high energy. After the second class, I received a text from the teacher/owner asking to talk about his behavior in the class. He was called "disruptive" and I was told he was "exhibiting unsafe behaviors"...these behaviors? Dancing and running around the room, trying to reach the stereo to press buttons, and trying to open a door that he had seen a piano behind. I told the teacher that he was definitely high energy, and we would take him to the park to run around previous to the next week's class, to try to burn off some energy. We did so, and he was a little calmer. We also removed him from the room when he became over excited. He helped clean up instruments when switching activities. I saw progress in getting him to adjust to the expectations.
The morning after his third class, I again received a text from his teacher/the owner. When she called me that afternoon, she told me that they could no longer have him in class, that multiple parents had complained about him, and he was preventing other children from enjoying the class. My son never put his hands on another person, never hit another person with an instrument, never...he accidentally ran into the legs of one mother and the teacher when running/dancing around the room.
During this phone call, there were three options posed to me. She suggested that we try another company, suggested that he come to class on a Friday morning rather than the Wednesday afternoon classes we had been attending (if my son's behavior was truly disruptive or unsafe, what does the day of the week of the class have to do with it?), and also offered that occupational therapy had helped her son. I was caught off guard by the suggestion/implication that after three short classes and no one-on-one interaction with my son that she felt comfortable and justified suggesting that he needed some sort of intervention for what would have been seen by most people as normal toddler behavior.
When I pointed out that it was an inappropriate suggestion for her to make, instead of an apology I was told that it wasn't a recommendation, it was just something that had worked for her child and she was just speaking to me as a mother...there would have been no point of bringing it up if she wasn't implying that my son would benefit from the same intervention so I'm not interested in the CYA semantics.
Since we were told that we were no longer welcome at Music Together, I have mulled the circumstances of our dismissal over and over and I feel obligated to speak out to other parents who might see the advertised class and think that it is good fit for their toddler. I would 100% not recommend bringing your toddler to this class. I don't want this situation to happen to another parent. I did get a pro-rated refund.
We have since been welcomed with open arms at another facility with a more realistic approach to toddler behavior. The owner and his teacher made sure to each reach out to us after the first class to discuss the "beautiful moments" that they saw, and reiterate how welcome he was, rather than contacting me with a litany of complaints and attempting to pathologize childhood behavior. The children there are encouraged to be themselves and to truly enjoy the music together. read more
