Last year I decided to sign my toddler up for swimming lessons. She was excited at first, sporting her brand new Hello Kitty swim suit and Crocs as she happily skipped into the pool area with a stranger. I assured her I would be just a few feet away, and watched as her instructor charmed her into trusting him to care for her while she was in the water. It was the first time I trusted anyone with my baby, but I was confident that this would be a great experience for her. For the next 3 weeks, I would hand her off to this instructor, who other parents in the facility swore to be the best. Then, one day, my toddler had a bad experience. On our drive over to the swimming school, she became car sick and vomited. We decided to keep on with her lesson, cleaned her off, and sent her on her way. BIG MISTAKE. I should have taken her home, because what happened that day would ruin a seemingly good relationship between her and her instructor. A relationship that took weeks to build and wasn’t quite solid yet. My toddler was not cooperating, and refused to do as the instructor requested. Instead of going with her flow that day, after I explained to him that she was having a bad day, he lost his patience and dunked her underwater during a tantrum she was throwing in defiance. This is not how you treat an almost 3 year old, and if you don’t have patience with children, you shouldn’t be working with them. And yes, I speak from experience – I was a middle school teacher.
I bet you know what happens next.. She never wanted to go back to swimming again. Can you blame her? Trust turned to fear. We tried switching her instructor, bribing her, you name it – she wasn’t getting back in that water. I was, and still am, completely outraged that one of the most important lessons my child should learn in her life has been damaged, and I’m hoping she will outgrow this fear of water now. She still mentions her experience during bath time sometimes, and each time I try to think of creative ways to replace those bad memories with better ones.
I’m determined, and this summer I plan on teaching my toddler how to swim. Not only will it give her confidence in the water, but I think it is important that she learns how to save herself if she happened to fall into a pool, or pulled in by a current at the beach. Since May 18th is National Learn to Swim Day, I think this is a better time than ever to think about the steps I will take to get her back in the water. Since my family has signed up to be a Swimways Swim Team Ambassador, we will be provided with the necessary equipment to take on this feat.
I will be updating with our progress on teaching both my girls how to swim. Even though my youngest is only 1, I think now is a great time to get her in the water before she develops fear. How old was your child when they learned to swim?
Disclosure: I am a Swimways Ambassador. I will be provided with products throughout the campaign to try out with my family.
Sweet T will be 3 in August and doesn’t know how to swim yet. I think I was 4 or 5.
We’ve used a lot of the swimways products and they are great for teaching your child to swim.
Swimways were great when helping my kids learn how to swim.
These are great and it’s always good to teach your kids how to swim.
I love the Swimways products, they really helped my youngest learn to swim.
My kids LOVE the water. I haven’t ever put them in lessons but luckily my mother in law has a pool and they get a lot of practice every summer.
We just signed up for swim lessons!
My kids LOVE the water.
We have used Swimways the past few years — they are so good! I am trying to get my crew into lessons this summer … hoping it goes well!
I’ve never heard of them before, off to check them out!
we did this last yr and the program is wonderful . My oldest learned to swim and my youngest is still learning with the products we received for review
I started my son in swim lessons while he was in diapers, but he wore something like swimways for many years. You can never be too safe!
Having confidence in the water is a big key for children learning how to swim.
Wow that makes me so sad an instructor would do that, so sorry your little girl had to go through that. Swimming lessons are so important. We’ve taught both our children since we were both taught at young ages, so are pretty confident they swim well.
My daughter refuses to take a class or wear anything for swimming, it is making it difficult for her to learn how to swim.
oh wow I would have been SO mad if I saw that happen. He definitely shouldn’t be working with little kids because tantrums and bad days are bound to happen. 🙁
Hopefully this turns out a lot better and Swim Ways can help gain her trust with their amazing products.
Both of my daughters are pretty strong swimmers but we’re really hoping my son advances a bit this summer. He isn’t scared of the water by any means but does need to work on his swimming skills.
I hope it goes better this time around. We went through so much for my daughter to swim as, no longer how many lessons she had, she somehow would go backwards. It wasn’t until years later that she had one particular teacher that pulled all that knowledge out of her. Now she swims quite well!