As a child I never learned to swim. I never went to the local pool and never had any formal lessons. A good friend had an indoor pool at her house, and she and her sister and her parents all tried to teach me, but fear of putting my face in the water combined with a general uncomfortable feeling in the water meant that I needed to stay in the shallow end of the pool. Not that I always did that; instead, I spent a lot of time drinking from the depths and being saved by my friend. By rights, I probably should have died in that pool.
It wasn't until my junior year of college when a very nice and extremely pretty college lifeguard insisted I learn to swim. And while I'm not a great swimmer by any stretch of the imagination, this young lady did a good enough job with me that I no longer fear getting into the pool - and I can swim well enough to keep myself alive. Oh, and in case you're wondering - I eventually married that lifeguard!
So needless to say, when we had children, one of the things I insisted of my wife is that she teach them to swim. I did not want to have to relive any of those scary episodes from my childhood with my own kids. My son, however has inherited his father's apprehension about the water. For the past few years, I have been doing everything I could think of to help him get over his fear of water - especially his fear of putting his face in the water and of going under the water. My daughter on the other hand inherited her mother's "fishiness."
Today, both of my children took a giant step - or should I say jump forward in their water skills. My son swam the width of the pool underwater while pinching his nose shut ... basically he kicked his way across. But he didn't panic, and even though it took him several tries - he kept at it until he could do it. Once he accomplished this, I decided to see if he could go a step further - so I told him we could stay longer at the pool if he would jump into the pool. We started in the 3 foot end where he can touch the bottom without a problem. Then we moved up to 4 feet where it was much more likely he would go under. He did it, on the condition that I stand there and help to make sure he came back to the surface. Then we moved to the deepest part of the pool - 5 feet. He was definitely scared ... he had tears running down his cheeks. I told him that he didn't have to jump, but I also assured him that once he did, he would think it was so much fun that he would want to jump in over and over again. Sure enough - that's what happened. Once he made the jump and realized he would come back to the surface - he started jumping whether I was in the area or not ... and he would doggie paddle over to the wall, hop out and jump in again.
Once my daughter saw how much fun he was having, she wanted in on the fun. We went through the same progression, 3 feet, 4 feet, 5 feet. In no time at all - we were all having a blast - and me all I was doing was just standing in the water - laughing. Now the kids can't wait to show my wife, and I can't wait to see her face when they do.
No comments:
Post a Comment