This morning I took my two youngest to the YMCA pool, along with two of their friends. It was fun for the girls. Allison is a little fish in the water. Nothing frightens her and she goes underwater with great ease.
Ashley is another story. While my littlest angel loves the water, she really hasn't gotten the hang of swimming yet. I'm not sure that she ever will be a great swimmer, but I'd certainly like it if she could be taught to keep herself above water for a period of time. Right now it's a bit dangerous for her if she can't touch bottom with her feet.
The Y has two water slides, one small and one very tall. They opened the small red one for a bit and I caught Ashley each time she came down. Then they opened the blue one. This one required climbing a lot of stairs. Ashley climbed up, so excited to be going down the big slide.
The lifeguard at the top sent her back down, telling her she had to pass the swimming test before she could go on the blue slide. I took another lifeguard aside and explained Ashley's condition to her. Then Ashley 'took' the test. She had to swim across the width of the pool by herself. I kept a hand under her tummy as she splashed her way across and passed the test. She was SOOOO thrilled to have passed the test. You'd have thought the lottery had been bestowed upon her.
She then proceeded to climb the stairs back up to the top of the big blue slide. I anxiously waited for her to come sliding out through the bottom opening. She never arrived. I finally saw her dejectedly coming back down. At first I'd thought the lifeguard up there had turned her away again. I'm not saying my hackles rose...but I was not feeling too pleased.
I yelled up to ask what had happened and the guard yelled back down that Ashley had gotten scared and changed her mind.
Poor thing came over to me, dropped into the pool and buried her face in my neck crying. I hugged and hugged and kissed and kissed her. I told her about the time I'd climbed a high dive ladder only to get an attack of nerves at the very top, and making everyone on the ladder behind me climb back down so I could get off the thing. I told her it was a good thing it was just stairs to come back down and that everyone gets scared sometimes.
I think on Monday I'm going to call the Children's Therapy Unit and see about getting her into some swim lessons for special needs children. We were going to do that before we moved, but I think now is a good a time as any to see if we can't get her swimming ability up a bit higher.
What a brave girl, and an awesome mom for helping her overcome her fears... and acknowledging that we all have them. Sweet little thing.
ReplyDeleteShe truly is a sweet thing. Of course, she can be a little stinker with the rest of them as well. But then, who can't?
ReplyDeleteYeah, special needs swimming classes for this summer - sounds like a great idea. Swimming is scary enough even for a lot of kids without special needs.
ReplyDeleteAhh, the beauty of the human heart and the need to test our limits and grow, if only to sometimes find that, for now, we can't quite do it...yet.
ReplyDeleteAshley will do this, with your help. But with knowing so little about her, does she really need the "special needs" instruction or would regular classes with an understanding instructor be just as good, and without that "label?"
Just asking...you are wise and loving, and you will know.
You are such a great mom. My mother would have yelled at me in front of God and everybody.
ReplyDeleteMy kids both love the water, too. It takes an incredible amount of patience, sometimes, to deal with the "will I or won't I" part of the slide. I've hiked up and down those stairs a number of times.
ReplyDeleteI can recall being very frightened of heights, especially climbing to the top of a high dive.
ReplyDeleteThere's no way I would have reprimanded her. Hasn't everyone been frightened before?
Yeah. Right now, as a matter fo fact. I'm taking two teenagers, a pre-teen, my mother-in-law and my wife on vacatin for a week. Real white-knuckle stuff.
ReplyDeleteSee y'all in a week
You're taking your MIL on vacation?
ReplyDeleteBrave, brave Sir Robin....
yeah, you're taking MIL on vacay with you. i suggest no other witnesses are made aware of this. sigh. so easy not to do a body count on the drive back...
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