Now that the Winter Olympics are over and the calendar has flipped to March, spring and summer are on my mind. I’m ready for warmer {dryer!} weather and spending more time outdoors. What I’m not ready for, though, is… the pool. Until the Kindergartener learns to swim, any destination involving a body of water is a place of great stress.
So, today, we will begin a second round of swim lessons. She took a few lessons in the summer and made some strides, but she has quite a ways to go to become independent in the water. I was reminded of this a few weekends ago when we were in a hotel with an indoor pool and she proudly suited up in her goggles and puddle jumper and asked if there was a baby pool.
My mom was determined that my siblings and I would learn to swim at a young age. Therefore, I went through all the swimming classes at the local YMCA beginning in infancy with the parent/child classes and eventually graduating to the ones with the fun names: Eel, Polliwog, Minnow, Guppy, and so on. While I never demonstrated any Olympic potential in the pool, I did eventually learn to swim on top of and under the water. So, I had the expectation that my own children would master basic swimming skills at fairly young ages–both for their safety and for their enjoyment of the water.
When the 5th Grader was three years old, I enrolled her in a swimming program I had seen advertised on the local news and in magazines at the pediatrician’s office. The seasoned instructor got rave reviews for his work with even the youngest swimmers. She was beyond excited. We had talked about swim lessons for weeks, and she was so happy to wear her new swimsuit, cover-up, and Crocs. She looked every bit the part of “beginner swimmer.”
We arrived at the swimming school, which was actually a pool with a bubble attached to a home in a residential area. And, the Preschooler eagerly hopped into the warm water and anxiously waited with the other 3-5 year olds for the class to begin. Meanwhile, I took my seat with her toddling sister poolside in the steamy atmosphere to spectate. Soon, the instructor entered and began the lesson. He was older and authoritative and got right to business. What started as some playful splashing soon escalated into him asking each of the kids to put their face in the water. And, this is where things took a turn for the worse.
Little did I know that the Preschooler had such an extreme aversion to the water being in her eyes or on her face. At the mere suggestion that she put her face directly in the water, she lost it and began screaming for me to rescue her. Unfazed by her reluctance and clearly having seen this situation a time or two before, the instructor called out…
Instructor {loudly}: Whose child is this?
Me {quietly}: She’s mine, sir.
Instructor: Do you want me to make her put her face in the water?
Me: Well, are all the other kids going to be doing that? Is it important that she do it right now?
Instructor: Yes. And, if they won’t do it on their own, I put them under myself. There’s always one who acts like this, and they just have to get past their fear.
Me: Um… Well, she doesn’t like the water to get in her eyes, but if you think that’s what works best, I just want her to learn to swim.
Instructor: Fine. I’m going to need you to leave the pool area. In fact, I need to you go to the locker room and turn off all the lights so she can’t see you. You can come back in 5 minutes before the class is over. I’ll send someone to get you. This will never work if you’re in here.
Me: O…. K.
And, with that, I left my terrified 3-year old in the arms of a stranger who proceeded to dunk her in and out of the water {both to her horror and my regret} for the next 15 minutes. Without a bit of exaggeration, I could hear her screaming from the front parking lot. It was one of my more troubling parenting moments to date. And, truth be told, I’m not sure who was more intimidated by the instructor… her or me.
When the class finally ended what seemed like three hours later, I had a lengthy conversation with the assistant about what alternative classes we might consider for the rest of the spring. Fortunately, we were allowed to switch to a parent/child class, and the Spouse accompanied her to the rest of her lessons. I, however, remained banished from the pool area so as not to distract or offer rescue for the rest of the season.
In retrospect, if we had stuck with the original instructor and his proven formula for teaching kids to swim, she would have learned more quickly, albeit not painlessly. But in that particular season, I didn’t have the gumption to stay with it and she eventually learned to swim under the patient but firm instruction of a teacher at the Y who was good with the hesitant type. There’s a lot to be said for matching personalities to the method.
When the 3rd Grader turned three I had the brilliant idea I should sign her up along with her older sister for “buddy lessons.” She didn’t have as much of a fear of the water as her sister did at her age, but she had some strong opinions about what she wanted to do in the water. Therefore, she was an equally challenging student.
She was initially super excited about learning to swim. The enthusiasm fizzled, though, when she realized she wouldn’t be in charge of the lesson. At one point, the instructor threw a ball out into the middle of the pool and wanted the girls to each take a turn swimming out into the lane and grabbing the ball, supported by a noodle and assisted by the instructor herself. The oldest one did as told. But, in true “threenager” fashion, the other one had to be forced to swim in the direction of the ball while she resisted and yelled, “This is stupid!”
She also learned to cheat when picking up the diving rings. The instructor would thrown the rings into various parts of the shallow end and as soon as she would turn her back, the sneaky student would slide down the ramp to make her hair wet and then proceed to pick the rings up with her feet. It was a long, sometimes embarrassing stretch of lessons. But, she stuck with it, and the 3rd Grader knows how to swim today.
Now the focus just shifts to helping the Kindergartener get there as well. She has the interest and the enthusiasm. She just also comes with some spunk. May the Lord bless and protect her instructor.
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