Babies Need to Work Out Too: Gymboree Review

I happen to hang out with a lot of moms either online or in person and that's how I discovered that babies can get their own gym memberships.  I'm not talking about at the YMCA; I mean they have gyms specifically for babies.  I tried to imagine my tiny tot lifting foam weights and doing squats for a pacifier.  What the heck do they do at a baby gym? 

I went about investigating.  I was stunned to find there were THREE different baby gyms in the area: Gymboree, The Little Gym, and My Gym.  I've heard varying reports about each, so I decided to take matters into my own hands and go undercover to discover which baby gym offers the best bang for your buck. This will be a three part expose! 

Today, I visited the King of Prussia Gymboree location for my free "Play and Learn 2" class for babies 6-10 nonths old.  First, the location is a bit confusing to find, I'm very glad I took extra time to find it. Look for signs because the building is set way back off the street. 

Once I get there, I'm greeted by an overworked woman who explains that she's trying desperately to get her lunch in between her five classes of toddlers. Someone called in sick.   Still, despite the exhaustion she must have felt, she kept it upbeat and cheery.  I appreciate that. 

I'm told that the babies can go into the gym barefoot, but parents have to wear socks.  I look down at my sandels.  Who wears socks with sandels in the summer? Not me.  Fortunately, they have a basket of loaner socks for parents.  Seems like this faux paus is common enough to require a back up system.  If they had mentioned it on the web site, I might have come prepared. 

The gym itself is a huge padded room with huge padded jungle gym toys.  There's tiny slides, a wooden train to ride in, stuff to crawl over and around.  It really does look like nirvana for babies. 

The class of about 14 babies starts with circle time and songs.  We stretch the babies out while singing songs.  My baby absolutely loved seeing so many babies doing "airplanes" on their mommy's shins.  Then the babies played with balls, while the mommies went around the circle and discussed child care options we've tried.  That was a nice touch, because I got some really valuable info. 

Afterwards, our teacher brings out little scooters and explains that the week's theme is "riding."  Hence, riding a scooter will help with balance.  My child really hated this part, but a lot of babies loved it.  I have to admit they looked really cute on scooters. 

After scooter time, they "rode" the slide (with parental support) and other movable objects like big wheels and trains.  While my little girl liked this, it took us out of the circle where the babies could play and crawl together, and forced us to interact with our babies alone again.  The whole reason I go to these things is so Callie can play with other babies, so this was a minus for me.

We did get back into a circle for bubbles and parachute time.  Once again, we sang songs and then it was over.  The babies all looked a little worn by this time.  A little over stimulated to say the least.  I know babies don't have the longest attention spans, but you really do move through activities kind of fast and furious.  I felt tired afterwards too!

However, if you are going for a trial run, be prepared to get the sales pitch afterwards.  Classes are fairly expensive at $71 a month and that includes 4 classes (1 a week) and free "open gym" times.  However, for my girl's age bracket that would be twice a week.   If you took advantage of ALL the "open gym" times and the four classes, it amounts to about $6 a visit.  But if you are only going to the classes it's about $18 per visit.  There's also $45 new member fee too to take into consideration.

There is a $10/month discount for buying a four-month subscription membership.  So you'd pay $61 a month.  But I can't even get my own ass to a gym for four months in a row...I'm not sure I can manage that for my daughter either.  And in all honesty, MOST of the activities we did at Gymboree, we also did at the Phoenixville Library's Baby Story Time, and that was FREE.  Just saying. 

Meet me back here for Part 2 of our exploration of baby gyms when I visit the Collegeville Gymboree and The Little Gym in Exton.