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Swimming & Other Necessities
So after extraordinary effort to overcome my reluctance to put on a bathing suit in the city, I signed Felix up for a few weeks of swimming. The last time we saw this pool it was 40 degrees cooler. We had diligently attended all fall, and while I tend to be something of a goody-two-shoes and reluctant to cut class, the high winds and my reluctance to freeze my ass off (though a gander today made me seriously wish I had) made me bail on the last meeting in December.
Half a year later, the pool has lost none of its allure for Felix and another mother whose son is three commented over my kid's happy shrieks that I should stick with swimming if he likes it. She said that if I keep it up, when he turns three or four he'll be less likely to suddenly decide he's frightened, refuse to learn how to swim as a manipulative gesture and if that happens, getting him into a pool will be an exercise in humiliation, futility, and possibly bribery.
Just when I was thinking this was going to be a surgical strike class in a slow stupid summer, I had to be reminded of the future.
Swimming, you see, is one of the things on my very short Must List. I wrote about this last year and I'm surprised to see it is back to haunt me so soon.
(The Must List actually has an Origin Story: Years ago, a friend of mine whose child was already in grammar school told me that there are a few things she felt her kid had to learn before leaving her exquisitely furnished home where delicious food is served.
Swimming was on her list as was a foreign language, a racquet sport and a few other things that you can't expect me to remember. I don't recall what I ate for dinner three nights ago. For the record, mine also includes learning to play with dogs and animals generally, bicycle riding and irony mastery.)
And here is where my little internal struggle is lodged: I do think the kid should learn how to swim and I am well aware that things that are easy now can get difficult and tricky if postponed. (The memories from last fall of the echoing wailing of the two-and-a-half-year-old who didn't want to get in the pool and his beleaguered mother's sad, sad face are still with me.) So do I administer another semester of chlorine-flavored fun or do I coddle my natural tendencies towards torpor and fully-dressed-ness and sit it out?
I suspect I know which side will win already.
posted by Elise at 7:52 PM
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said...
As an expectant mom, swimming is just about the only thing on my "must" list for the kid. I'll admit that I'm biased, since I learned how to swim before I could walk, and have always counted it as one of my favorite activities. The thing is that I grew up assuming everybody learned how to swim, and some people just liked it more than others. It wasn't until I met some non-swimming adults (like my husband, and most of his family) who are really uncomfortable around water, that I realized how difficult it is to learn as an adult. I've spent the last several years watching my active, outdoorsy husband try to to build his confidence in the water, and it's tough for him. I'm hoping to teach my kid to swim before he or she is old enough to ever develop a fear of the water.
8/06/2006 1:58 PM
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