where wildly different is perfectly normal
I never thought I’d see the day…
I never thought I’d see the day…

I never thought I’d see the day…

On Sunday we took the boys to the Community Center swimming pool. This thing is a kids’ dream. Zero-depth entry, a waterslide, big pipes splashing water on people in the pool, the works. Every mom in the area spends all summer there ’cause they can’t get their kids away from it.

Every mom but me, that is.

See, my kids can’t swim. It’s not for lack of lessons, but one has sensory issues and the other one is “monkey see, monkey do.” It’s made for some wild swim lessons. We dropped lessons last summer for the sanity of both me and the teacher. We knew it was time when she and I were considering dropping the boys at the childcare after the lesson to go get a drink.

But I digress.

So I’ve avoided the swimming pool for the last few years. Other moms look at me like I’ve grown a second head or a third arm when I say that. Uh, sorry ladies, but I care about my kids not drowning. I couldn’t trust them there. I was afraid one would go one way, one go the other, and then just imagine every drowning nightmare and that was why we didn’t go. Or…we’d get into the water, and I’d have one squirming and grabbing on one hip, one squirming and grabbing on the other hip, and my swim top being pulled about to show what God didn’t grant me.

No, didn’t sound fun to me either.

So we went to the pool on Sunday with a great deal of trepidation. It only took 45 minutes to get ready (sweet Lord, sunscreen application takes forever). But you know what? The boys were great! A went down the water slide by himself and didn’t freak out. A floated by water jets and didn’t freak out (seriously, this is a big deal; I thought I was going to have to put him in therapy for waterjetaphobia). A put his face near, in, and under the water and didn’t freak out. A got water stuck in his ears and didn’t freak out but bounced until it came out. J had on water wings and didn’t freak out. J went down the water slide with daddy and didn’t freak out. J blew bubbles in the water and didn’t freak out.

I never thought I’d see the day.

And we’ll return to the pool many times this summer…if we can get the sunscreen dance to under 30 minutes.

11 Comments

  1. Y’know, I think we put kids in the water too early these days. My older one is 6 and he is just getting into swimming…. and enjoying it. My 3yo has no interest. And I don’t plan to push it. I think there are benefits to waiting. I am glad to hear you didn’t push it. And glad to hear that it’s going well this year.

  2. My kids loooove the pool. And I hate public displays of MY thighs. Bad combination. I’m savin’ up for a pool in the backyard…and with my income, I’m thinking in the year 2025 we’ll just about have it. =)

  3. I’m with you. Or was. My friend keeps inviting me and the boys to her pool, and I keep having fears of not being able to be in two places at the same time. So yeah. But glad it worked out for you! Hey, maybe that just made your summer easier!

  4. I’m sooo glad you had a wonderful Father’s Day at the pool! Yay! I hope your summer continues to go this smoothly 🙂

    As kids, we LIVED at the park pool! My mom would drop my sister and me off as soon as it opened at noon, and picked us up at 5. (She then got to be alone with our baby brother. You know, The Prince! haha) It was awesome! Before that, we had a pool in our yard, and then we got another pool in our yard when I was 18 (my little brother was 11) We were always around water. Our kids are now the same way. My son was about 7 months old his first summer in my parents’ pool, and he refused to get out. My nieces were always the same way. The youngest actually gave us all a scare, then a laugh, when she was about 7 or 8 months old. It was her first summer, we were all in the yard, about to get in the pool, and she crawled straight across the deck and head-first into the pool. Thankfully, her big brother was already in the pool, and simply reached over and grabbed her, as she melted into a blob of giggles. Ah, good times…

  5. eatplaylove

    ok, I will wait patiently for my invite to your neighborhood pool, because I know you have one. I’ve been there. Now you obviously have no excuses. Although that may mean I would need to put on a swimsuit. eek.

  6. Congratulations! Pool time should really help you enjoy summer more too!
    It’s amazing what a little time does for our kids who challenge us, sometimes I wonder if it would have been easier if we could have just adjusted their ages when they were born.

  7. I grew up in the water. I had no choice. I lived to be in it. Swim teams at age 5. Naturally I became a swimming instructor/lifeguard as a teen. I loved working with the wee ones. Especially the kids who were scared witless of the water. I can feel for you. It is indeed a big deal that A and J had a good time. That first Eureka moment when the fear evaporates is a wonderful thing to behold. Now you just have to follow up with some more well regulated visits. I bet that before the summer ends they will love the water. I never met a kid I couldn’t get into the water eventually.

  8. I commented before I read the other comments.

    Christi – I am of a different mind about when to put kids in the water. I was introduced to water before I could walk. I went through the fears and trepidations so early, I do not remember ever being afraid of water.

    So when my daughter was about 2 years old, I enrolled her in the local YMCA Infant swim class. A parent and the infant took it. I will always remember those first classes. Lis was definitely not into it at first. But she trusted me and went with the flow with only a minor amount of hysterics. By the 4th or 5th class she was jumping off the low board into my arms at the deep end and dog paddling with me next to her to the ladder. She too became a fish just like I did. IMO, earlier is better.

  9. MRMAcrum — I am sure it depends a lot on the temperament of the child. Even at a young age, my kids had a lot of trepidation in the water. I think about the only thing I could have done was get the in the pool daily for months at a time, and that was not realistic. My 6yo, on the other hand, is loving it now.

Whaddya think?

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