Act I: Today was Amelia's first swim lesson. Since we are going to be going to the pool and the beach quite a bit this summer, I thought we should build on some of the skills she learned last year and get her to be safer around the water. In my head it was going to be like this:
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I Dreamed a Dream. The world was a song
And the song was exciting
There was a time... |
I got her all dressed up in her Little Swimmer, with adorable ruffle bottomed swim diaper on top of that. She wore a surfer shirt on top. I pulled her hair back in a ponytail so when she was swimming like a dolphin through the waves, her hair would not get in her eyes. I brought a swim cover up and a towel. We went to Wal-Mart and got Princess Disney crocs to wear after she got out of the pool. She totally looked like a mini Natalie Coughlin.
We arrived 15 minutes early. The pool is indoors and enclosed in a glass fishbowl. She could see the pool but could not get in. She kept saying water, water and pulling on the door handle. She wanted to get in really, really bad. But what she didn't know was that I was not getting into the pool with her.
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Then it all went wrong! Sing it Fantine. Girlfriend, I feel you! | | |
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ACT II: I had to sit in a chair outside the fishbowl and observe. I think this is supposed to be comforting to the child that they can see their parent, but not for Amelia. She could see me and I was not coming to rescue her from the very nice man playing with her in the water! Her silent shrieks of "Mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy!!!!!!!!!!!!!" were pathetic. She cried from the moment I handed her off to the instructor and didn't stop until the owner asked me to see if she was breathing properly, about 15 minutes into the lesson. (She was that overwrought and she was fine.)
FINALE: They asked if I would like to try to calm her down and then resume the lesson. I told them she would just start crying all over again and I'd rather not put her through it twice. So we ended the lesson. I am a cold, mean mama --- and probably a glutton for punishment, so we are going to try again next week and every week for a month.
CURTAIN.
2 comments:
I am thinking that this whole experience was new to her and new is sometimes scarey. I hope next time she will remember that nothing bad happened and Mommy was there to get her promptly once she was finished. As with everything, there is a learning curve, so stick with it.
Why can't you be in the water with her? Work with her and the instructor to build trust. She won't get past it without you building a bridge.
My mother had the same trouble with Annie. She ended up doing the lesson with the instructor's instructions. In the mean time, he taught the rest of us cool things to do off the diving board.
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