Swim Lessons

After watching M not being able to keep up with some of his friends at the pool, Papa Bear and I decided that we should enroll M in swim lessons. After asking around we decided to enroll M in a hardcore swim school where the lessons are only fifteen minutes long but the instructors get right down to business.

I had heard from many friends that their children cried the first several (or more) lessons and so was prepared for this inevitability. On the morning of the day that M was to begin lessons, I explained to him that he was going to go into a pool without me, but a teacher would help him. I also told him that she would help him to put his face in the water...this was the thing that M was always reluctant to do at the pool.

As soon as I had finished explaining to him about the swim lessons, M said, "Mommy, I'm a little bit scared." How cute is that?! I told him that it was okay to be scared, but I thought he would have fun.

After leaving the park, where we met his Wednesday playgroup friends, we drove to the pool. At the pool his friend James, who M has known since he was about five months old, was in the pool having his lesson. M watched intently. Soon it was his turn to get in the water with Wendy, his instructor. As I walked away from the side of the pool, where I had dropped him off, I prayed that he would not cry and would have some fun.

Surprise! M loved the lesson! Wendy kept pushing his head under water and he took it like a trooper. He even put his head in the water on his own when asked to. I was so proud of my baby.

On the drive home, clinging to his balloon that every child receives after the end of each lesson, M said, "Mommy, can I go back to swim lesson again?" I said, "You bet!" and was happy for the munchkin. He had faced a fear and conquered it.