I had my son enrolled in swimming lessons when he was 6 months old. A mix of my family being very involved with boating (I was a member of the Crew team at my school), we have a cottage on a lake and we are pretty much always around water in the summer along with the fact that swimming is quite plainly, a survival skill was part of the early exposure. It also didn't hurt that one of my best friends didn't learn how to swim until she was in college and I saw how hard that was for her. I saw the fear of not being confident in the water. I spent time in the pool with her as she was learning to swim and always thought that I would not make my child deal with those challenges (however, it was definitely awesome she overcame her fears and though not a great swimmer has had a good time going to the pool with my family).
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My son did great in the water at 6 months old. He was doing Awesome! Then... he developed an irrational fear about getting water on his head and in his ears. My husband doesn't exactly like getting his face wet, and quite frankly, I don't enjoy it at all times either. But unless you have some type of medical issue or abnormality, the normal human ear can clear water just fine. There are some dogs that when they go swimming, it makes them more prone to yeast infections from the moisture, but simply using a drying agent prevents this. My son never had much trouble with ear infections, I think he's had maybe 3 in his entire life.
This fear of getting his head wet lasted about 3-4 years. Finally I was able to get him interested in going underwater with some water rings and when I worked with him with watching the fingers I had under water and counting them. He started having fun with that. So he would go underwater. We have done so many cycles of swim lessons with my son, I can't even count. I gave his swim teacher the Starbucks free refill Christmas cup one Christmas when he finally learned how to swim ( a little).
I can safely say that my husband and I have spent more than I want to remember on swim lessons. I've probably spent over a thousand hours in the pool with my son. While I like swimming, I don't like it THAT much.
I especially don't really like him jumping in the pool and splashing all over me. I don't really like going to the pool in the middle of winter (although sometimes it's so warm I can almost feel like I'm on a Caribbean vacation if I can ignore the noise and smell).
Needless to say, both my husband and I have sacrificed for our son to learn how to swim. We were hoping that this summer, he would pass the "Swim Test". It's a test where they have to swim 25 yards unassisted in a pool that is 7 feet deep. Which, considering our son is about only 42 inches long is a pretty long distance. I'm pretty sure I didn't have to do that when I was a kid (our swim lanes were at the most 3.5 feet at at least some point). We tried to enroll our son in extra private lessons, which became difficult with a busy summer. We just kept getting in the water.
So, what's the big deal about the swim test? Well, until they have the swim test, wherever they are you need to be within 10 feet. I'm not one to really abandon my kid anyway, but when I'm in 3 foot water and he's in 1 1/2 foot water and it's 95 degrees, I kind of prefer to be in water where most of my body is covered... There's also two water slides at our pool that are only open during the summer. They are two stories high and there's a life guard at top and a life guard at bottom, the bottom where you land is a pretty small area that I can touch in, but has a strong current. My husband and I enjoy doing the waterslide, so we will switch "custody" back and forth to take turns.
I've been talking to my son about passing the swim test and the freedom that would give him and he'd be able to go on the waterslide. Not motivated. As a matter of fact, I couldn't get him to swim more than 6-8 feet without putting his feet down and touching bottom, or turning around and swimming back to me.
We've been trying to get a pool day together with my son's friend for a while. He is the youngest of 6 kids. He has a sister who's about 3 years older than him and a brother who is about 5 years older, they all play together pretty well. The older siblings needed to do the swim test to be able to go on the water slide. My son's friend had passed a swim test at his pool (not as long a distance, I think) and being the youngest, wanted to keep up with his siblings. I thought, well, my son probably won't pass, but it will be an experience and he will get to see what to work up to, plus, if the lifeguard was already testing 3 kids, it wasn't wasting his time to test another. I asked him if he wanted to do it, he said yes. I assured him that if he didn't pass, it was totally fine, just a goal to work for. I told him if at any point he struggled, he just had to reach for the wall. Reaching for the wall would finish it though, and he wouldn't be able to try again.
He watched as each kid did the test, the oldest did it super quick, second oldest not quite as quick and his classmate, not too fast. He didn't share his nervousness and I tried not to share mine. He tried to get into the pool with the ladder and not jumping in like he normally does. I reminded him he had to swim wall to wall.
He got in and he went. I cheered him on because I know he loves to be cheered. The lifeguard went to reach the lifebelt out to him a couple of times because he would stop, tread water, breathe and then go on. He was 50% through his 25 yards, than 75%. He took some pauses, treading water and by the end of the lane, even the life guard was cheering him on. Chanting his name. He came out of the water cool as a cucumber, "Of course I knew I'd pass," he told me.
I was unprepared and didn't take a picture of him as he finished, but I did take a picture of him the first time down the water slide.
His friends and him went down the water slide constantly, to the point I had to stop him because I could see he was getting exhausted. I did catch him, coming down the water slide, singing to the tune of La Cucharacha, "I passed the swim test, I passed the swim test." He was slightly embarrassed when I told him I heard him. "You have nothing to be embarrassed about, what you did was quite an accomplishment."
I told my friend that I should have paid her the money instead of the swim teachers, because the peer pressure of her kids is what got my son to take on the challenge.
It's also a lesson and reminder for me- no matter how much work and time you put into a goal for your kid- it's up to them. Often it's also up to their friends. Peer pressure is powerful. I'm praying it's powerful for the good and I'm reassured that at least at this age, I still have a little role in picking his friends.
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