Henry Has His First Swim Lesson

Today Henry, who is “almost 5” had a private swim lesson.  

We were nervous about how this would go. 

Henry loves water and swimming.  But he is always in his life jacket and there is ALWAYS an adult hovering.  

A kid in water can get into danger in less than 30 seconds.  

Henry is nearly 5 and he has needed swimming lessons for about 3.5 years. Swimming lessons are always full in our area, and the waiting lists never end.  Somehow we lucked into a private swim lesson opening up for us.  

I opted for private one on one lessons because Henry did soccer recently and he spent the entire time sitting in the coach’s lap or running away from the group altogether.  I didn’t think that was a safe thing to replicate with a bunch of small people at the edge of a pool.

I have been talking about the upcoming swim lesson for a week.  Henry has been asserting that he already knows how to swim… I feel like I am being punk’d by the universe.  I try to convince him that there may be something he doesn’t already know about swimming.    

We got to the boujie athletic club about 25 minutes early.  If you have ever tried to make a young kid wait calmly for anything you know it’s about as effective as willing a bunch of bees not to buzz. You can’t do it.  

After 25 minutes of constant chatter and whining, it was Henry’s turn.

We walk over to the teacher and she is a cute girl who is probably 17.  She takes Henry’s hand and has him get in the water on a movable platform.  

“Can you put your face in the water and blow bubbles?” She asks, and then shows him what she means. 

“Oh yeah. I can breathe under water and I am really good at swimming and did you know that there are sharks in the ocean and they can move super fast and sometimes they eat sea turtles… I love swimming and I have a life jacket that helps me swim and I am able to kick with that on…” He continues.

As his mom, I have to walk away.  I can’t watch.  I will have to butt in if I stand here any longer.  

The lesson is 30 minutes.  15 minutes into it and Henry is talking non-stop still.  He also is refusing to put his head under water and blow bubbles.  To prove that he is incapable he keeps opening his mouth and licking the pool water.  I am amused.  I also see the look on his teachers face and know I have to step in.  This young lady was not prepared for my kid to just flat out refuse to do what she asked him to do.  

I had been walking around the pool to give them some privacy.  I walk over and crouch down.  

“Hey buddy, you have to listen to your teacher here and try to do what she is asking you to do.  We all start out bad at stuff, but we have to keep trying to learn how to do it.  If we don’t try then we will never get any good.”  I could see the pressure was getting to him at this point “Look man, this doesn’t have to be a big deal, it can be fun still, but the point of doing this is that you listen to the teacher so she can help you be safe in the water. “ and then… I issue the final statement very matter of factly…“maybe you are too young to do these lessons, and if you are, we will have to wait until you are older to get you more lessons.”  And then I walk away.  Mike drop.  

Don’t ever tell a 5 year old they are too young for something.  They don’t like that one bit!

Honestly, I have seen 18 month olds who have been taught to swim.  Henry is not too young to swim. But I need to get him to WANT to improve his skills, or we are not going to make progress with these lessons.  

He did the remainder of the lesson with more intention and attention and was not talking the entire time.  As a lower level skill to blowing bubbles, he learned how to hold his nose shut and dunk his face in the water.  Baby steps.  It was a good lesson, and this is a great skill we can continue to practice at home during bath times.  

At the end, he was sad to leave and was looking forward to his next lesson. I will call that a win for everybody involved.