My babies are slowly jumping into the ‘deep end’

By Dr. Heather Bozant Witcher
Clarion Herald, Young Adults

My twins have begun swim lessons. We intended to place them in lessons last summer but missed the deadline as we were packing and moving to our new home. So, we figured that this year it was time.

They love the water and always have. I have so many photos and videos of them as babies playing in the splash pad or water table. In the bathtub, they’ve frequently tried to “swim.” So, I was a little unprepared for the first day of lessons.

Parents were instructed to wait within the gated area, allowing instructors to work one-on-one with the kids because the kids were more likely to listen without parental interference.

As soon as my children realized that mommy would not be accompanying them in the water, their own waterworks began.

Both of my legs were bolted to the ground by almost 4-year-old boys clinging in desperation as I tried to gently explain that they needed to go with their teachers.

“It’s just like at school,” I remember trying to persuade them – to no avail. The sounds of sobbing and screaming for mommy echoed throughout the pool area.

And, of course, I could feel my face burning as I knew so many parents were looking at us. One kind-hearted mom took pity – her children had done the same thing last year. This was normal.

That first day was excruciating. One of my twins said he needed to go to the bathroom in an attempt to get out of the water and negotiate with me: set a timer, he said, for two minutes. Then, I can get out and go to the playground.

He has no sense of time, so I agreed. He got back in the water for the remaining 30 minutes. He wasn’t happy and continued to look over at me with his large puppy eyes, but he did get to kick and splash.

The other twin refused to do anything except cry out and look at me in the water as his instructor floated around with him. It’s progress, I told myself, because he was at least in the water.

The next day, there was pleading and attempted bribery to avoid going to the pool. I kept calm and told them how much fun they have in the bathtub splashing around and getting water on the floor. Now, they can make all the big splashes they wanted.

But, that day, I also asked permission to leave the gated area and take my youngest to the splash pad at the other side of the water area, out of view of the twins.

Such a difference. Not only was my mama-heart lightened, but when we came back to the area, both of the twins were floating in a starfish position.

They saw their younger brother return and immediately wanted to show him all they had learned.

But it was more than swimming that they learned. They’d also learned that they can overcome challenges and their fear of something new.

As I’ve watched them grow and progress in the water, I sometimes see not the almost 4-year-old, but the baby trying to figure out how to crawl, how to stand, how to walk.

The same looking backward for mom for security, while struggling for independence and being inspired by curiosity.

That, I tell myself, is the true lesson.

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