Everybody Into the Pool

Emma had been a bit behind the curve on her swimming, very hesitant to put her face in the water and requiring various types of inflatable Things as well a me close by when in the water. I couldn't seem to get her ready to put arms and legs together. Not only was this not a lot of fun for me, but I had so much fun in the water when I was a kid, I wanted Emma to be able to experience that, too, if she could instead of being tied to the edge or shallow end when her friends were jumping and diving. So when the opportunity arose for her to take a swimming class with a friend, I signed her up.

The teachers seemed particularly great with dealing with beginning swimmers and their anxieties (unlike Kent's teachers with their sink or swim philosophy, pretty scary for a kid with as little body fat as Kent!) Emma enjoyed watching the sample class but basically said no way was she getting in that pool with those strange people. When the day of the first class arrived, I told Emma all she needed to do was to get in the pool with her bathing suit on and we could go to Kohl's and get the $5 BarbiePrincessFashionWhatever with the microscopic shoes she'd been talking about for two weeks straight. After that, if she really didn't want to take the class, she didn't have to. She did fine that first day. Only cried once (when she saw me--how awful a feeling is that?!). She could hardly wipe the smile off her face during the second class. When she woke up in the morning of day #3, she said out of the blue "Mommy? I LOVE swimming class!". At the next pool party, she really enjoyed seeing how much she could do on her own or with just a little help from me, including swimming using the kickboard. I always get a report when she's put her face under water and opened her eyes and it "didn't hurt at all". Having successfully navigated how hard to push her to get her past her fears and into a fun, confident place, given the right environment, I felt exhilarated. Emma and I talked about it in terms of how the mommy bird knows when her babies are ready to fly and how they each feel when it's time. They say we need to give our kids roots and wings, and I'm sure I'm only beginning to understand why everyone is so sure the roots are the easy part. Here's a photo of Emma and her favorite teacher, (Mr.) Hal.