Skip to main content

Swimming lessons

I bought a bikini last week so that I could get into the pool with the kids, rather than just watching from the sidelines. I was motivated by the fact that we were going to an unfamiliar pool and my youngest still cannot get himself floating on top of the water and breathing at the same time.

Well, the last time I bought swimware was when I was pregnant with that same child so that we could take advantage of the apartment complex's pool. There was no way I'd go out in public in a bikini at that point, but just down to the private, indoor pool, was ok. Bareable. That was when I was in my early 30's.

I read somewhere that women in their 30's are the least represented on the beaches and in the pools. It's mostly the young and the old that strip off and wear swim gear. When I read that, I thought, yeah, that makes sense. Now that I've actually had to - from necessity - get into a bikini in public, it wasn't that bad. But then I'm nearly 40. I've now realised that my body is never going to get back to what it was like when I was in my 20's. In my early 30's I could still remember having a flat stomach, and probably thought it was possible to get it back. Now, after this many years, I know that if I haven't done it yet, I'm not going to do it. And it's only going to get worse and eventually I'll look like those wrinkled oldies walking back and forth in the swimming lanes.

A little later

I started writing this post before I took the kids for their swimming lesson this evening. And as luck or irony or coincidence would have it, my younger boy for the first time ever, managed to float on his back unaided. Thus being able to breathe, and thus now in a position to rescue himself (just barely) should he ever get into deep water in a swimming pool. And thus removing my need for a bikini and getting in the pool with him.

The way he decided to do it, if I may sidetrack my post a little, was really amazing. I want to do another post sometime on how boys learn, and I saw "how boys learn" aptly demonstrated to me tonight. The instructor told the six little kids in the pool (5 of them were boys) to get floatie boards so they could learn how to float on their backs. One little boy piped up and said he could do it without the board. Then to my surprise, my son said he wanted to do it without the board. I thought, this will be interesting. All the kids with boards went first. Then the first little boy without the board. Then my boy. Who actually floated on his back without sinking into the water almost immediately. I thought, oh my goodness! It was the competition of having the other boys around him, he wanted to be better than them and be as good as the boy who could do it without the board! None of this, just do the best you can and it'll be ok!

So now my youngest son can float on his back and I've got a bikini that I don't need, but I'll be wearing next time we go to the pools.

Comments