Swim Lessons

Jeremiah and Kylie swimming at the West Yellowstone condo

I remember when Carolyn first began taking swim lessons a few years ago. She was briefly traumatized on the first day when the kids were to stand in the shallow end with the teacher and play ring-around-the-rosie. At the end they were to "all fall down" in the water - the point of this exercise being to get the kids comfortable in the water and, in particular, with putting their faces in the water.

After she recovered from the initial shock of what she was expected to do, she went on to LOVE the lessons, and now she looks forward to them anxiously each year! She has become a very accomplished little swimmer.

I had planned to enroll Kylie this year, but she was clear that she did not want to do swim lessons this year. She hated the idea of having to put her face in the water. In fact, she let us know that she would not be getting baptized because she did not want to be dunked under the water. (I told her she had a few years more to think about it....) I was fine with letting her wait one more year, especially since she is just turning four this summer, which is the minimum age for these classes.

However, while we were on a little family getaway in Yellowstone a month ago, the kids and Jeremiah LIVED in the pool at our condo, and Kylie decided swimming was a lot of fun, afterall! She told me that she did indeed want to join the class. I asked multiple times if she was sure, and she was. By this point all the Level 1 classes were full, but as a favor to me the teacher bumped us to the front of the wait list and got Kylie in one.

Tuesday was the first day of classes. This year our classes are late in the afternoon, so I had to endure an entire day of the girls excitedly and anxiously asking if it was time yet! I literally had to count down from seven hours, and they asked multiple times per hour how much longer.

Kylie's class was first, and she excitedly got into the pool when the teacher was ready for her class. She smiled as she participated in the first few exercises (though they did not do ring-around-the-rosie, which I had prepared her for and she was looking forward to doing). Then when the teacher started taking the children one by one and helping them glide through the pool with their faces in the water, Kylie suddenly started sobbing, "I don't want to. I want my mommy."

The teacher has been a preschool teacher for years and deals with children very well. She was able to keep Kylie calm enough that she didn't bolt from the pool, as I was expecting her to, but Kylie did cry a fair amount throughout the lesson. It was heartbreaking.

At the end of it I told her how proud I was of her and that she had been very brave. She informed me that she did not want to do swimming lessons anymore. (One of those things you wish could have been mentioned yesterday.....)

Since I have paid the non-refundable tuition, and since the teacher went to great lengths to squeeze us in, I feel like I need to keep her in the class. But she pleadingly tells me each day that she doesn't feel like swimming, as I pry her from my body and place her in the pool. I do wonder if this is going to make her stronger or if it will end up scarring her for life.