Sooo the other day, I was on social media when I ran across a video clip that showed these toddlers in a class where they were engaging in yoga. You heard me. Not aerobics. Not athletics. Not ballet….YOGA.

Ok, I’m not that out of touch, am I? Sure, I know of prenatal yoga. I’ve heard of the other forms of yoga like, Bikram. I even have an acquaintance who is a yoga instructor. Yes, well, despite all that, seeing those little kiddos being led in meditation practice hit me hard at my heart level. Why?

I’m glad you asked. Well, in my opinion, it’s quite one thing for an adult to choose (keyword) to adopt certain practices regardless of their origin. The assumption there is that that adult made a conscious choice and thus is already aware of the consequences. Sadly in fact, many people tend to only speak of the physical impact of yoga. Thus, it would appear that knowledge of the spiritual angle of it is missing in their decision-making. Regrettably, this is also the case in the American Church. Back to our analogy. That notwithstanding, such people are adults. They decided for it. BUT, why open a child to such influences without his or her full knowledge of what s/he’s getting into? Heck, this is a country and culture (Western) that feels that piercing babies’ ears is bad. Many would freak out at the thought, arguing that when the child is old enough, then she can opt to. Hmm, so delay such a physical decision but think no deeper regarding a spiritual decision? (this is my same issue with prenatal yoga, by the way).

The problem is deep. Why not also take your child to a fortune teller, then? And why not have a toddler sit with you as you do your thing on the ouija board?

Back to the anecdote. So, I decided to read through the comments that were underneath that video clip. I wanted to have a feel for people’s orientation, to get a pulse. Admittedly, I inwardly hoped I’d run across someone who could see the situation for what it was and could speak truth. Nope. Every person there, predominantly mums, lauded the practice. Many spoke of their kids who were engaged in it at school and yet many others spoke of how yoga helped focus their ADHD kids. Hmmm. Now, while I’m certainly not against efforts to help children with ADHD, I beg to differ that this is just not the way to go.

Let me try to explain why in this manner. Would you get your bundle of joy a credit card and start running up its credit from the time that s/he is a wee one? Would you even think to risk messing up your child’s credit score from that age? It wouldn’t even cross your mind, right? You would never think of doing anything that could jeopardize his or her chance of  future well-being, right?

Enter baby yoga, stage right.

©2016, WriTEswAY