Swimming

Dylan started swim lessons last night. Now I know we're bad parents. None of the kids have taken swim lessons. In large part because they have always been held on Saturday mornings between 8 and 9 a.m. Like we'd ever make it to that. HA!

NOTE: Actually, the oldest took swimming a couple of times when he was young and only had 1 sibling. After that it was really too complicated.
But now, now they have moved swim lessons to Wednesday evenings. At the same time my mother and I were discussing swim lessons for Dylan. See Dylan takes after his mom. Me. Poor, poor boy. He has no interest in sports. He's tried soccer. Too much running. He's tried wrestling. More fun to play in the gym than wrestle. He has no interest in baseball or football or hockey. We're running out of options here. So we decided to try swimming. He needs some form of activity to keep the boy healthy.

He loved it! Yay!

The hard part for me was watching him line up with the other kids and look so uncomfortable. We'd never been to the high school pool. He didn't have his bubble. Neither of us was sure of what to expect. I could see it in his body language. He was stiff and unsure. So unlike him. He was put into level 3 swimming.

He watched as the rest of the level 3's jumped into the deep end and swam back to the side. Yes, they just jumped in. In the deep end. He watched the level 2's sitting on the side of the pool in the shallow end. He looked at the level 1's sitting, with bubbles, on the deck of the pool talking. Hmmm... His teacher beckoned him to jump in. He climbed halfway down the ladder. He stopped. She told him to get in. He stayed right where he was. He looked at me and shook his head. No.

I wanted to run over and said there had been a mistake. I wanted to jump over the rail sectioning off the bleachers and run around the slippery pool deck (no shoes allowed) and pull him to me, reassure him and put him in level 2. I stood up. I walked to the rail. I watched with my stomach clenched. Dylan climbed out of the pool. The teacher climbed out. They spoke. Heads together. They walked over to the level 2's and chatted with the instructor. Ms. Level 3 walked back to her kids. (This took approximately 93 minutes in Worried Mommy Time)

Dylan stood on the side looking unsure. He climbed down the ladder. He swam to Ms. Level 2 then to the side of the pool. Then he loosened up, talked to the other kids and had a blast. It took approximately 27 seconds from pool entry to loads of fun. Yay!