JOM friendship heights mom here. The policy is clearly stated and at least at the friendship heights location and with our teacher, she will usually give you a pass the first and second week if you are 10-15 minutes late but will definitely warn you that in the future, the child will not be allowed to join the class. Our teacher is very educated about the child development process and the difficulty in teaching that age group. We have never had an issue and my 3 yo child understood that on X day and X time we needed to get ready for class and simple reminders were the only thing necessary to get out the door and into class on time. Also, she was excited to go so it wasn't that hard to get her out the door and into the car. If something came up and I knew we'd be more than 10 minutes late, they have a very open policy of making up the class at a different day/time. I don't see why the OP is so upset except that they probably feel entitled to disregard rules that they didn't take the time to read. I have little sympathy and JOM has been a great experience for me and my child.

Anonymous wrote:Hey, dumb ass! The pp just said you can be up to 10 minutes late. Don't you realize that being more than 10 minutes late would be pretty rude of your precious snowflake to others in the class. I'm glad they have the rule. And if it keeps people like you out who obviously is not a dancer then all the better.

JOM is an amazing studio. I have been going there for over 20 years. I can't say I was ever late to class.

You're talking about a 3 year old. And by the way, your anger and hostility does not reflect well on JOM. If you're their type of client, I'm happy to stay away.

Anonymous wrote:I have enrolled my toddler in a couple of classes: music, swimming. People come late all of the time. I guess we're much more laid back in the District.

I don't think this is a teachable moment, since three-year olds don't have much of a concept of time. Research shows that they also have trouble with future hypotheticals; i.e., "Hurry and eat your breakfast, or we'll be late to dance class and they won't let us in," is understandable to seven-year olds, but not four-year olds, according to a study done a couple of years ago.

The Joy of Motion studios in the district follow the same policies as Bethesda. It's actually headquartered in DC. If it happens all the time at the other studios you go to, that's probably the scenario that JOM is trying to avoid. But everybody wins because there are studios for chronic late people and there are studios for people who are able to judge commute time.

Anonymous wrote:I have enrolled my toddler in a couple of classes: music, swimming. People come late all of the time. I guess we're much more laid back in the District.

I don't think this is a teachable moment, since three-year olds don't have much of a concept of time. Research shows that they also have trouble with future hypotheticals; i.e., "Hurry and eat your breakfast, or we'll be late to dance class and they won't let us in," is understandable to seven-year olds, but not four-year olds, according to a study done a couple of years ago.

OP, obviously the other three-year olds in the class arrived on time because their caregivers made the extra effort to get them there on time. Unclear where you got the idea that it was a drop-in class. Surely, the posted schedules in the studio were a clue as to the class' start time.

I have enrolled my toddler in a couple of classes: music, swimming. People come late all of the time. I guess we're much more laid back in the District.

I don't think this is a teachable moment, since three-year olds don't have much of a concept of time. Research shows that they also have trouble with future hypotheticals; i.e., "Hurry and eat your breakfast, or we'll be late to dance class and they won't let us in," is understandable to seven-year olds, but not four-year olds, according to a study done a couple of years ago.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Glad my kids don't go to such a place. Our studio doesn't have a problem with late arrivals, and our kids are teens. We rarely arrive late, but if we did and they wouldn't let us in I'd get out of there, too.

this. only weak moms worship such rules because they can't parent their own kids. they're the same ones who want a law/gov't program for everything.

Seriously.

I can just imagine them throwing things at the poor mother-to-be who showed up three minutes late to a pre-natal yoga class.

Hey, dumb ass! The pp just said you can be up to 10 minutes late. Don't you realize that being more than 10 minutes late would be pretty rude of your precious snowflake to others in the class. I'm glad they have the rule. And if it keeps people like you out who obviously is not a dancer then all the better.

JOM is an amazing studio. I have been going there for over 20 years. I can't say I was ever late to class.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Glad my kids don't go to such a place. Our studio doesn't have a problem with late arrivals, and our kids are teens. We rarely arrive late, but if we did and they wouldn't let us in I'd get out of there, too.

this. only weak moms worship such rules because they can't parent their own kids. they're the same ones who want a law/gov't program for everything.

Seriously.

I can just imagine them throwing things at the poor mother-to-be who showed up three minutes late to a pre-natal yoga class.

12:38 here, no affiliation with this studio whatsoever. Just browsing DCUM and was a little curious abou the OP.

Anonymous wrote:All these types of forums are absurd on this site.
There is a nutty parent complaining for herself being irresponsible and giving her kid a bad habit of being late, and Joy of Motion trying to justify it by pretendig to be a number of parents.
And then you wonder why you should not trust reviews and BBB (btwy, as shown on 20/20, ANY company can buy any A+ from them for $400!)!!

19:14 here, not a JOM employee or owner. Just a Mom.

All these types of forums are absurd on this site.
There is a nutty parent complaining for herself being irresponsible and giving her kid a bad habit of being late, and Joy of Motion trying to justify it by pretendig to be a number of parents.
And then you wonder why you should not trust reviews and BBB (btwy, as shown on 20/20, ANY company can buy any A+ from them for $400!)!!

I was curious about their tardiness policy so I googled their website. If you look on their website, the policy is clearly posted:

http://www.joyofmotion.org/youth_studio_policies.php

It is also listed on the pdf schedule packet:

http://joyofmotion.org/admin/Editor/uploads/Fall%20Youth%202011.pdf

In fact, you can arrive late to class, up to 10 minutes into the scheduled start time for the class. That is very reasonable and accounts for the unexpected. The 3 year old class is only 45 minutes, so arriving 15 minutes or later means you have missed over 1/3 of the class. By the time you get the student in the class and settled (a 3 year old generally doesn't just jump right in) then as much as 1/2 the class might have been missed. In a preschool class, it makes sense not to have kids trickling in throughout the class because it is very disruptive to the kids who arrived on time.

I imagine that Joy of Motion is like most dance studios and their registration form includes a signed agreement that you have read and understand the studio policies. I don't know of any kids activity that does not include thaty kind of signed agreement.

Although sad for the poor little girl, Joy of Motion is not being unreasonable in the enforcement of its policy.

Have any of tried to teach a class with a revolving door of late arrivals/early departures? It's like mass chaos all the time. (I teach art) Some of you are paying me to provide a decent class for your children and that's what I aim to do so yes, timeliness is important.

That said, for the first week I would have allowed it and mentioned the policy would be enforced. That gives the mom time to work around what caused the tardiness and decide if this is the type of environment their family's lifestyle can work within.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Glad my kids don't go to such a place. Our studio doesn't have a problem with late arrivals, and our kids are teens. We rarely arrive late, but if we did and they wouldn't let us in I'd get out of there, too.

this. only weak moms worship such rules because they can't parent their own kids. they're the same ones who want a law/gov't program for everything.

I love the absurd generalizations on this forum. I can't even follow the general thread of them most of the time.

Anonymous wrote:Glad my kids don't go to such a place. Our studio doesn't have a problem with late arrivals, and our kids are teens. We rarely arrive late, but if we did and they wouldn't let us in I'd get out of there, too.

this. only weak moms worship such rules because they can't parent their own kids. they're the same ones who want a law/gov't program for everything.

Glad my kids don't go to such a place. Our studio doesn't have a problem with late arrivals, and our kids are teens. We rarely arrive late, but if we did and they wouldn't let us in I'd get out of there, too.