The Walk of Shame

Our children have been taking swimming lessons for the past two weeks at Seal Swim School which is a fantastic but also aggressive swim school.  I was so optimistic at first.  I would be with Cooper in the Parent Tot class and the other three would all be in their lessons at the same time.  Cooper really enjoyed himself for the first week but by the second week he understood that he would be going under the water several times.  The tears began and the screams continued throughout each class.  Beyond just the tears was how long he was expected to stay under water.   After a couple of seconds I was ready to scoop him up but the teacher was much stricter.  By week two, it had become our own personal torture chamber and I began to count down the days until it was all over.  I expressed my concerns that I was teaching him to fear and loathe the water as well as the fact that he has barely grasped the concept that he can crawl let alone to swim to the wall and pull himself up and out.  He is not even 10 months old and he is also a chub-a-wub!  It takes a lot to pull that big body out of the water! 

The owner, who has been doing this for decades, came over and worked with Cooper and I for a minute and diagnosed our problem almost immediately.  Me.  I am the problem.  I am not a strict parent when it comes to teaching kids how to swim.  He knows that I will rescue him and not make him work for it.  She decided to work with him for the rest of that class - I think to prove that I'm the problem.  After she took him, the class teacher looked at me and said, "Mom, you can get out of the pool now."  It seriously felt like the walk of shame.  I had not made the cut - I was a weak parent.  I had to get out and go sit on the sidelines. 

I am actually quite happy because it is true - I am a weak parent.  It broke my heart to hear his wails.  Luckily, he gets private lessons (for no additional charge) for the remaining two weeks.  It began today and although he did cry for over half of the lesson, he had already showed improvements.  He could hang onto the wall and started to kick when he swam underwater.  It still tugs at my heart but I'm trying to have faith that this is the right thing to do. 

The biggest drawback is that I now drive over 30 minutes each way to swimming every single day - twice on Mondays.  That is in addition to the two days a week of gymnastics.  I really do feel like we are living in our car at times.  But I have to just keep chanting - two more weeks - two more weeks.  But on the bright side - Coleman and Campbell just learned the beginnings of the butterfly stroke.  They called it "The Caterpillar".  And Addison can now swim the length of the pool.  It's all worth it right?