Just keep swimming
Swimming is one of those life skills that everyone should learn at some point. Nowadays, most people enroll their kids in swimming lessons either as toddlers or even introducing as babies in a parent and tot class.
For me, it was important that both kids learn how to swim, but I also wanted them to learn to respect the water and have a sense of pool safety. We’re fortunate enough to have a swimming pool in our backyard and while it gives us endless enjoyment throughout the hot summer months, it also causes me a surplus of anxiety and stress. The fear of a child drowning is one of my worst nightmares. During the winter months, the pool is covered with a winter safety cover, but in the spring and summer, it’s a constant reminder that I need to be diligent, observant and repetitive with my pool safety instructions.
Our pool may be closed, but my kids swim every week at our local YMCA. They both love their weekly lessons, but it wasn’t always that way. Taking my daughter to swimming lessons in the beginning was quite a challenge. She didn’t want to go near the water. She didn’t want me to leave. She didn’t want to make eye contact with her coach. And she didn’t want to even leave the house when she knew it was time to go. But swimming lessons was mandatory. It was something that she had to do, even if she was scared, nervous, or didn’t like it. I spent the first three months, encouraging her and watching her struggle for the first half of the class. She would make any excuse she could think of to get out of the pool to come see me. I was frustrated with the weekly struggle, and I could see that she was exhausted with fighting it. I contemplated private swimming lessons or pulling her out until she was a bit older – she was three at the time.
It just so happened that she didn’t pass her level, and she had to retake Bobbers, but this time she had a different coach. Her new coach made all the difference. Swimming instructors tend to be teenagers or young adults and while most of them are amazing swimmers, sometimes they lack the skills when dealing with anxious or scared children. Her new coach, who happened to be in his late 20s, told her it was okay to be nervous. He told her he was nervous when he first learnt how to swim and he told her they would take it slowly and have fun.
It was the first time that someone talked to her on her level and it made a huge impact. Suddenly she wanted to try. She wanted to dunk her head underwater and she wanted to jump in. Today, she swims like a fish. She loves her weekly lessons and during the summer, she’s the first one in the pool and the last one out. Its amazing how one person can make the difference in a child’s life – some people just have a natural knack with kids.
