Like Mother; Like Daughter 



D can't swim yet and it's pretty hard on her at the pool. I've tried explaining to her, "The reason you can't swim is because your mother spends hours reading to you instead of swimming with you. And your parents are too lazy and unorganized to get you into a regiment of lessons." But she doesn't buy it. She thinks it is her. She is convinced she is the only child in the entire Northern Hemisphere who can't swim.

We have done one round of group lessons each summer, but evidently, it hasn't stuck.

I tried to explain that everyone learns different things at different paces. She can read (very basic books, nothing fancy), and a lot of her friends can't do that, for example. But she doesn't buy that either.

I wish I could give her the gift of perspective: "D, in 30 years, you'll be sooo glad that you are smart and love to read. You won't care a bit that you couldn't swim when you were 5!!!"

Nonetheless, I signed her up for swimming lessons yet again starting in two weeks. Well, sort of. In order to get both kids in simultaneous swim lessons, I had to put her in a class that is probably a year too easy for her. Honestly, I think this will be good. She was still a bit nervous at last year's round of swim lessons. She may not learn to swim on her own this month, but I'm hoping she learns to feel less afraid of putting her face in the water.

She reminds me so much of myself as a young child - always with a nose in a book and afraid to jump in the water.  

Posted: Thu - June 30, 2005 at 09:24 PM          

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