Before becoming parents What The Dad Said and I discussed things that we’d like to be able to offer our children. What things we hoped they would achieve etc. Being able to swim was one of the things that was a must-have ability for them. What The Dad Said is somewhat of a water baby whereas it took me until my teenage years to learn to swim unaided and I’m still very cautious in the swimming pool.
Roo appeared to follow in her dad’s footsteps when it came to swimming. With her gaining confidence in the water easily and progressing with her lessons. Although she did not start her lessons properly until she was nine as the previous academy that we had lessons with a couple of years earlier was unreliable and kept cancelling lessons etc. Thankfully this didn’t seem to knock her confidence and enjoyed her lessons and has become a strong swimmer.
Tigger has always been our cautious child we knew it would take him a little longer to feel comfortable and confident in the water. So we opted to start his swimming lessons ahead of the ones he would receive via the school (fearing that his classmates would be cruel). He has been attending lessons for around 18 months or so and has really come on in confidence and can swim well.
Piglet started her swimming lessons at the beginning of December. I smugly gloated about the fact I’d managed to get her into a session to coincide with Tigger’s lessons. She’s now had around six or seven lessons and I can see from watching at the poolside that they aren’t going well.
After today’s lesson, her teacher came over to talk to me about her progress – or lack of it. She is very dependent on the teacher during lessons and reluctant to put her back or in the water etc. On a couple of the lessons when she has had her head in the water etc she goes into full-on drama mode. To the point of crying and coughing that she almosts vomits (and nobody wants that in the pool! 🤢). She suggested that Piglet tried the Ducklings Level 4 class which would require either myself or What The Dad Said to be in the pool with her. However, these sessions are held during school hours and as Piglet attends full-time preschool we are unable to do this.
For now, we have cancelled her swimming lesson and opted to leave it for a year or so before we try again. With us working on her water confidence when we go swimming as a family. It’s disappointing as I thought she would take to it straight away as she’s always happy in the pool with us on holiday. However, she is potentially just too young, much younger than her siblings when they started lessons so we’ll just have to try again at a later date.
It’s going to be difficult for her to come along to watch Tigger complete his swimming lessons. When she will now be back on the poolside watching instead of partaking in a lesson herself. But she’s just not ready for swimming lessons.
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