[Mhoney]

Do you just post a video on your own page to participate in the challenge? 

[Mhoney]

My boyfriend has a 9 year old girl and she loves playing on the monkey bars and poles at school. She didn't know anything about me going to pole class and one day I saw her run up to a parking sign and do a fireman spin. It was really eye opening and made me realize that a big reason why I enjoy pole is because it reminds me of being a kid again. Swinging yourself around without fear is a sensation I hadn't experienced since childhood on the monkey bars. When we go to playgrounds we search for poles to do tricks on. The rest of our kids are younger so it's a way to make it fun for her to hang out with little ones at playgrounds and it's great exercise for her. There's no connotation or stigma for her. She's totally innocent and it's fun. The adults are the ones that try to put something on it or see something dirty in it. 

So when her mother found out I have a pole and her daughter has been playing on it she kind of freaked out. My response is that her daughter likes to play on bars at the playground at school everyday and she likes to dance. Maybe some dance lessons would be nice for her. I also tried calling it my 'vertical bar' which sounds so silly but I thought maybe it would help to call it by another name because clearly she was in a very negative judgmental place. Not sure how else to handle it. She's not my daughter, her father doesn't have a problem with it (he totally sees the fitness part of it for both of us) and it's not like I'm going to take my pole down. I wonder if the mother would have reacted if she found out the I've been teaching her daughter how to belly dance…So sad that people are still so closed minded about anything that could be remotely connected to sex.