Swimming Lessons

Yesterday we started swimming lessons. By we, I mean all four of us. G is in level one, E is in the preschool class, and Miss H and I do the mom and baby class. It seems to me that swim lessons are just one of those rites of passage that a mom and her kids have to go through, and are a sort of bizarrely entertaining/annoying experience. 

G does pretty well. And by pretty well, I mean that he actually goes to his class and semi does what the teacher tells him to. You wouldn't think this is much of an accomplishment, but then again if you have ever had the lovely experience of attending swim lessons you would know quite differently. One boy in his class cries the entire time the teacher tries to get him to swim on his back--these are five year olds people. I just imagine how his mother probably feels as she watches. 

Oh wait, she probably feels like I did when I kept looking over to see E in his preschool class the first day. Scratch that--I could never find him the first day. That's because rather than being with his class, he took it upon himself to wander around the shallow end. He visited his brother, tested the depth of the pool, tried to play with whatever toys he could find, etc. It was grand. On the other hand, however, he was the only one of four kids in his class to enter the water without screaming and crying and clinging to his mom--so I am going to count that as a win. By way of improvement, today when I looked over he was actually with the class participating!! Hallelujah. My primary goal for him is to not get kicked out of the pool. If we can make it through the next two weeks without that happening I'm going to call this a raging success. 

Finally, there is Miss H and me in the tot class where I have made a realization: I hate doing this sort of stuff. Seriously. We sing and twirl around and do all sorts of baby things. I feel like a total moron and wonder how this could feel 10 times longer than 30+ minutes spent jogging. Then I feel doubly awful because--seriously what is my problem? Everyone else is singing and doing the actions so why do I feel like such a geek? But there it is.

So this is where I recommit myself and say, this is part of being a mom. Sometimes you drag your kids to  (and from) the pool. You sing a song in a swimsuit and just suck it up and feel like a frustrated dork. You do it because that is what that child needs and being a parent means being the bigger person and sacrificing for someone else. So for the next two weeks we are creating memories. We are dirty, and tired, and messy, and probably ridiculous, but we are doing it and we are doing it together. 

And it's worth it.