Swimming lessons are not optional for my kids. With a rushing river steps from our door, and regular family outings on our boat, learning the life skill is mandatory for the kids in our household. Unfortunately, what I thought would be a quick and easy accomplishment for my firstborn, has become a seven year battle.
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again…or take a break and try again in a few years?
In the beginning, swimming lessons were fun for my oldest. When she was 6 months old, a group of my mommy group friends and I signed up for Mommy and Me swimming classes. Each class, my girl splashed and giggled with enthusiasm, her sparkling eyes begging for me to dunk her head under the water again and again. Unfortunately when she was 1, I returned to my full-time job and found it difficult to keep up with the lessons, so I put them on hold.
We did our best to take her swimming regularly, but our visits to the pool were few and far between. When she was 3, I decided it was time to start up the lessons once more. Unfortunately, her love for water had dissolved, and the lessons were everything but enjoyable for her. She failed Tiny Tots 1 – the entry-level swimming stage. I enrolled her again, and again she failed. After 6 failed sessions, I decided to give her another break. Why beat a dead horse? She’ll come around eventually.
With the arrival of our second child and two busy careers, swimming lessons were on our minds but fell by the wayside. Again, we did our best to take our kids swimming, and while they loved to splash and play in the shallow end of the pool, both children refused to submerge their faces in the water.
This past Fall, I registered both kids in Tiny Tots 1 together, hoping that my oldest would find motivation in helping her little brother. And with determination and a lot of assistance from her instructor, she passed. She was proud of herself, and I felt a huge sense of relief. My big girl was finally learning how to swim.
Drive, determination…and heartbreak.
With the pending arrival of baby #3, I again chose to give my girl a break from lessons.
With the approach of Summer, her friends began inviting her to pool parties, and it didn’t take long for her to realize that she was more than behind in her swimming skills. Her classmates were all doing cannon balls in the pool, practicing hand stands and wooshing down waterslides on their bellies, while my girl watched enviously from the sidelines in her swim vest. “I want to learn to swim like them mommy, I feel so embarrassed that I’ve only passed Tiny Tots 1 and have to wear a vest” she said to me one day, and I knew it was time to re-enroll her in lessons.
Now 7, my girl is too old to continue with the Tiny Tots sessions, so I enrolled her in Stage 1 lessons – the first level for school-aged children. I promised that she would catch up quickly, as the class was 5 days a week. She was excited to get started, and showed up for her first lesson grinning from ear to ear.
She jumped into the pool with her fellow swimmers, and awaited the first command from her instructor. “Ok kids, front crawl to the end of the pool and then dolphin swim on the way back. And GO!” Immediately, the kids dove in facedown, and splashed across the pool like a school of fish. My girl, who had just finally dunked her head in the water for the first time in her last class (nose plugged with her fingers), looked at the instructor in awe. “C’mon, let’s go!” the instructor persisted.
My girl began splashing and flailing her arms around as she waded across the pool. She tried to put her face in like the other kids, but each dunk resulted in a nose full of chlorinated water. She hadn’t yet learned how to breath underwater without plugging her nose.
Gasping and choking, she just kept trying. My heart sunk and my eyes began to well up as I watched my little girl try and try again.
And then it got worse…
As she approached the pool’s edge, a boy kicked off and his foot hit her square in the face. Already humiliated, my girl pursed her lips and tried her hardest to hold back the tears that were welling up in her eyes. She glanced over at me, and her face fell as sobs forced their way through her tiny pout. But she still didn’t give up.
It took everything I had to resist the urge to scoop her up out of the pool into my arms, but I wanted to let her decide when she was done – she was just so determined. So I watched wide eyed, my heart racing and my throat choked up with empathy for my baby girl.
From failing to winning, and what finally worked.
When class was over she rushed into my arms and sobbed uncontrollably. I hugged her tightly and told her how proud I was of her for trying so hard and doing her best. I promised that she wouldn’t have to return to that class, and that I would find a more suitable option for her. After a lengthy discussion with the head lifeguard (who explained that although it was indeed the beginner level for school-aged children, my daughter had happened to land in a class where all the children had completed all 4 levels of the Tiny Tots sessions and they just happened to be a more advanced group), I made the decision to pay the additional fees for private lessons.
Although the cost was almost triple that of the regular swimming lessons, private lessons seemed to be our only option. But costs aside, it has been totally worth it.
After one session, my girl was bobbing under water without plugging her nose. Now five sessions in, she’s swimming on her back unassisted, dunking for rings without hesitation, and approaching the ability to do a proper front crawl. She’s actually learning how to swim, and more importantly, she’s loving every minute of it.
Signing her up for private swimming lessons was the best decision for my girl, and I’m so happy that I did it. Fingers crossed that my next two little ones will love the water from the beginning, but I’m also going to make more of an effort to enroll them in lessons earlier, and to keep it up regardless of the obstacles that might be in my way.
