By Real Mom.
Toward the end of summer I figured I should sign Jack and Kate up for swimming lessons. Jack had been taking lessons through the Y’s daycare program for about 2 years. Kate had some mommy and me lessons when she was about a year old but we stopped them because I hated them. The pool was always freezing, plus the water was fairly deep and even I had a hard time standing up and keeping my balance. Anyway, they both had started to really love swimming at the beach this summer. Kate would hold on to my hands, arms outstretched, kicking, saying “Mommy! I swimming! I swimming!” So, I really wanted to keep up with the lessons so they would stay comfortable in the water, since they both tend to…shall we say, be a little tentative with the unfamiliar.
So, after first signing them up with the Y – where they all but promised they’d turn into Michael Phelps after about 2 lessons – I ended up changing over to SUNY Purchase, where their cousins had taken lessons. Plus, bonus: it was $100 cheaper, each. Jack would take beginner-intermediate lessons on Wednesdays after school. I took a leap of faith and signed up Kate for solo lessons (without a parent in the water), for Saturday mornings.
Two weeks ago, Kate had her first lesson. She had to get a swim cap, so I got her a cute little red one with a kitten’s face on it. It even had little ears. So cute. I walked her over to where the lesson was happening. As we neared the end of the pool, she immediately started shrieking and crying and holding on to me with all the strength her little body could muster. Somehow I pried her away from me and handed her over to her very nice and patient instructor, Caroline. All the other little girls and boys were gamely standing on a little platform in the water. Kate was busy shrieking in poor Caroline’s ear, reaching for me. So after about 5 minutes of that, I said, well, why don’t we try watching for a while. Caroline handed her back over, and Kate and I sat by the side of the pool and watched. After about 10 minutes, I said, hey Kate, why don’t you try getting in again? And she nodded (she was sucking her thumb, of course, so didn’t actually speak.), but then once I started handing her over and the shrieking recommenced. That poor teacher. Anywho. After about 5 minutes, I got her out again, we watched about another 10 minutes, and then, I thought, oh hell, let’s just get out of here. And I was ticked at what I viewed as the weakness in my children that they were always the ones to shriek in terror at new things while other children seemed to just go happily with the flow. And, PS, I was soaking wet. Not surprisingly my pants got wet sitting on the side of the pool, so it kind of looked like I peed in my pants. Excellent.
And naturally, there was no lesson the next week because of Yom Kipper, so it’s not even like we could go get back on the proverbial horse right away.
I considered just cancelling the whole damn thing, but then, I thought, no, I don’t want them to be quitters. So I told Andy to see if he could call and maybe transfer her to a class where the parent was in the water. Surely she wouldn’t shriek and cry if we were in the water with her, right?
Last night: I’m putting Kate to bed, talking up today’s swimming lesson. “Are you going to cry in the pool tomorrow, Katie?” “No!” she says: “I swim like this:” and proceeded to lay down on her belly, kicking behind her and thrashing her arms some, pretending she’s swimming. “You teach me swim, mommy?” She asks. You bet, sweetie, I tell her.
This morning she couldn’t wait to get her suit on. She kept saying, “You teach me swim, mommy?” And I answered yes over and over. We got to the pool, and she even let me put her hair in a ponytail so her swim cap would be easier to put on. And we walked over to the side of the pool.
And the same thing starts happening. There’s crying, screaming, wailing, shrieking, and she’s got the death grip on me again. I kept reassuring her: “Sweetie, I’m coming in with you. I’m coming in with you this time!” I pried her off me to hand her over to the teacher (oh, poor Caroline again), so I could climb down the ladder. The water was definitely warmer and more shallow then the Y’s so I was feeling much more at ease. But she kept crying and shrieking, and I was doing my best to be calm and happy and peppy, but I was kind of thinking, Jesus Kate, get it together! Six other kids in the class, all of them bobbing happily up and down in the water with their moms or dads. And Kate, shrieking, “I want to get OUUUUUUUTTTTT!”
But, we kept on. I pried her off me to hand her over to the other teacher, Jennifer for a bit. She kept crying but at least she kind of kicked as the teacher handed her back to me. But she kept CRYING.
After about 10 minutes of this nonsense, I said, “Kate, if you stop crying, we’ll go to Wendy’s when we’re done!” (What can I say, I was desperate.)
Bingo. She stops crying. For about 5 minutes it was touch and go, she’d be fine and be laughing, and then start crying again. And then she got into it. She starts doing all the activities. Lays down with my hands supporting her back for a back float. “Ooooh, this is nice…” she says. Lets me tie a floatie backpack on so she can practice kicking while she throws a little rubber duck as far as she can (must mention, the swim teachers were impressed with her arm strength.) Now she’s laughing. “This is FUN, mommy!” she says.
Then the teacher gets out a hula hoop. She holds it half in and out of the water. The point being for the parent to be on one side, teacher on the other. The parent’s supposed to hand off the kid, while the teacher swoops the kid’s head underwater. So, we’re going around the circle, the whole time I’m debating with myself, “Should I have her try or not?” Then it’s our turn, and I decide. I tell the teacher to please only put her chin in the water; it’s been going so well I don’t want a setback. She nods in agreement and gets dips chin in the water. “AGAIN!” Kate says, but we each only get one turn. A father next to me turns and says, “Smart move. Why push it, right?” I shook my head in agreement and said, Yeah, no kidding.
Then. THEN. It’s time to learn how to jump from the pool deck into the water. Has Andy ever mentioned how much Kate loves to jump? She jumps off every step, rock, ledge, and curb she can find. I stay in the water, lift Kate out to the edge (my god, a challenge for those of us who are just as tall as the edge of the pool). “One. Two. THREE. JUMP!!!” She jumps in. “A-GAIN!” So we do it again. And again and again and again. I think she could have spent the whole class just jumping in and out of the pool.
Finally it was time for class to end, and we did some variation of wheels on the bus as sort of a class goodbye. Kate was fantastic. Laughing and giggling, even though she was starting to shiver and her lips were turning purple. And class ends and we get out of the pool, and she turns to me and says, “That was SO MUCH FUN, mommy!”
As promised we stopped at Wendy’s, and brought it home to eat. We sat in the kitchen and ate our lunch together, just the two of us. And she kept saying, “You teach me how to swim, right mommy?”
And for awhile I thought my chest was going to burst, such was the pride I was feeling for my brave little girl.
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