Fast forward four years, and we were enrolled in parent-child lessons again during the month of July this year. I wanted to be sure Miss Mouse was familiar with the pool setup, the routine, the setting. She does better all around when she feels the comfort of familiarity. It's one of the many things I've learned about her in the past four years.
We had a great time together this time. We practiced our new "skills" with our pool membership in the public pools, too. Mr. T even got to join us a few evenings, so all four of us enjoyed swimming in the "big pool" then. When I fly solo in the afternoons, we stay in the splash pad area or the kiddie pools because I'm not quick enough to keep up to two little Mice...and I have two few arms. Somewhere I had heard that it was a good idea to teach children to swim without water wings, life jackets, or other floatation devices. That made sense to me as I remembered how adamant my Grandpa Don was that my sister and I would be comfortable(ish) on a horse bareback before we were allowed to ride on a saddled one. If we hopped on a saddled horse and thought we knew how one moved, at some point we'd come crashing down to earth with the knowledge that we really didn't know the real feel of the horse. Well, it made sense to me that if children think they can swim, and with the confidence Miss Mouse has in herself these days, she definitely would have had that line of thinking in her head, that then they get overconfident and end up in more danger because they don't know the bounds of their own limited knowledge. They just don't recognize their own true limits. Obviously, most children are currently learning to swim in floatation devices, so this probably is overanalytical and not helpful for most people. It made sense to me, but in no way do I see it as the "only" or "best" way to think or to pursue fish-dom for one's kiddos. Everyone's got to make their own calls on how, when, where, etc., and I can respect differences in opinions as much as I hope others respect my own crazy-ness!!!
Whether the recommendation about floaties is true or not, I don't know, but we went with it. So, Miss Mouse has spent her summer in the water, within arms reach of an adult and without external supportive devices...probably because her mommy analyzes decisions and rationales too much, I suppose! She's danced around the pools, jumped around the pools, played ring-around-the-rosies with me, dunking herself at the end, and jumped in to me or her Daddy exhuberantly. At our last parent-child lesson, she was allowed to wear water wings and go down the water slide. Several other children went down multiple times, but none did it as many times as she did. The minute her head popped up out of the water, she was swimming for the side to climb out and do it again, and this was no 'imitation waterslide'. Although it was short, she was flying down into the five-foot end of the pool into her five-foot-two mother's arms, so each time she did end up dunking under the water before I could manage to grab her up! She did love those water wings, and since she has spent so much time learning her own comfort zone and knowledge limits this summer, I didn't mind her wearing them for a fun evening at all! Unlike four years ago, I didn't feel that I had to say "no" to the slide, either, which was really fun! I did notice, though, that no longer did the teachers push the parents of six- and seven-month olds to put their kids down the slide, and none of them did; in fact, one of the teachers told one parent to wait until their child was older and had stronger neck muscles. Perhaps I'm not the rebel I thought I was.
At our second of four parent-child lessons, I pointed out the children in the independent swimming lessons. I asked Miss Mouse if she thought she'd like to take those with a teacher and other children instead of having Mommy in the water with her because, after all, that's what I was intending to get her ready for by doing the parent-child lessons. She hesitated and told me she'd like to get "user" to the water before I left her with a teacher.
It took her one week to get "user", apparently. On our third week, she told me she was ready to have me sit in "the little room" and watch her have a lesson with the teacher. I mentioned that I could stay by the pool and watch like some of the other mommies were doing, but she was clear that I should go into the little "watching area" and leave her with her teacher.
Honestly, that level of independence is what I've been raising her for....but it still tugs on my heart that it is happening so seemingly quickly. She loves, loves, LOVES her swimming lessons. She's made friends with another little girl in the class (she's six), and she asks everyday if it is a "swimming lesson day". The hesitation and caution that she displayed in skating lessons last year has disappeared, and she spends her "free time" in class, while the teacher is with one of the other three children, following the rules by hanging onto the sides of her little platform area but also "practicing" by dunking herself and then waving at me!
I can still see in her eyes the little girl I held and rocked and sang to, even as I see her scamper off happily behind her swimming teacher, tie her own shoes, order her own food at restaurants, introduce herself to other children, ride her own bike (with training wheels, of course), and pedal behind me on our trail-a-bike (you'll have to google it...I don't have pictures yet...which will make sense if you take a look at the setup).
She's turning out to be sweeter, more kind, more sensitive, more independent, and more confident than I could ever have imagined when I held that tiny girl in my arms. Sometimes it seems as if this is in spite of me, but I'm amazingly, crazily, unbelievably blessed to have witnessed her development and growth these past four years. I'm so proud of who she has always been, who she's becoming, and who she will be. To be able to spend my days helping her learn new things, try new experiences, heal from emotional and physical hurts, learn how to treat others, learn how to get along with others.....What a gift.
Even if I wasn't quite ready to go sit in the "little room".
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