Swim Time Woes

I was confident walking into the Y and expecting Aiden to jump into the pool. Aiden love the water, or at least I thought so. He definitely showed me differently today as we attended our first swim class at the Y in Montclair. He’s in a class with kids close to his age, so I was expecting him to be fine. Of course, it’s a new experience and with that comes some adjustment, but the fear that he displayed today was unknown to me. Granted, Aiden hates to get his hair washed—mainly because water is dumped on his curls to rinse it as quickly as possible. However, even when that is not happening and he is simply being shampooed, he screams bloody murder. Needless to say, I didn’t think anything of it.

With the exception of hair washing, I thought Aiden was comfortable in the water. He’s lounged in the bathtub, walked openly, freely and independently into the ocean, welcomed the waves and sits down enjoyably. So who was this kid that I saw in the pool today? Why was he hanging on to me for dear life? He gripped my neck, clenched his whole body, just everything you can imagine to express discomfort.

I tried my best to calm him and make him comfortable, but I felt stuck and even a little embarrassed. All the other children seemed to be acclimated to the water well and I didn’t feel like the instructor was giving us much attention. I should’ve mentioned that we started the class 3 sessions late. In hindsight, I should’ve waited until the new session started, but I wanted to jump right in and not miss out any longer. I would’ve started Aiden in swim lessons months ago, but I needed to sort out the issues with his ears with the ENT (those were ruled out by the way).  

So now we’re here, 3 sessions late and the kids are climbing out of the pool, jumping into the pool, kicking and floating on their back. It’s one of those things in parenting where you don’t know what to do next. Do I pull him from classes and wait until the next session starts? Do I continue on and just allow him to acclimate in whatever way he can? These are the thoughts that actively go through parents’ minds when we can’t figure out if we’ve done the right thing. We’re going to stick with it. It will be trying, but he’ll get used to it—I’m confident in that.

There are times like these when we question and second-guess our decisions for our kids. It is part of what makes parenting hard, but when we overcome times like these—it is beyond rewarding. I look forward to the summertime when Aiden will be freely jumping into the pool without fear and knowing how to get out when necessary.

Look out for the summertime planning post that is soon to come.

As always, thanks for reading!

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