What Did We Do This Summer? Part Five

Mom Learns She Isn't Ready for Reality

Swimming lessons at the Aquatics Center.
Well, we finally lucked out this year and got a couple of swim teachers that actually give a rip about their job. Maybe it's the economy...got these high school kids on their toes. I really don't care. I had almost given up hope for our children to do anything more than blow bubbles in the water.

Lachlan and Jack both loved their teachers and they improved so dramatically this session. I was loving it.

On the last day of swim lessons, I was watching Lachlan and her class. They were on the other side of the swimming pool. Her teacher hopped out of the water to grab some certificates for completing the course. While he had his back turned I watched Lachlan and some of the other students leave the wall and start to head out into the deeper water. It was one of those slow motion moments when I realized that she was unable to touch and she started floundering in the water. I didn't want to scream because it was already total chaos at the pool and I just kept thinking that at any moment her teacher would turn around and see her. It was probably only a few seconds, but by the time he did she was completely floundering in the pool and choking on a bunch of water that she had swallowed. By that time, I was already almost over there to get her and I put a towel around her and tried to get her to calm down and stop crying.

She was fine, but she wouldn't stop crying. I finally looked her in the eye and asked her why she would let go of the wall. I started to explain all the reasons that we follow the rules to stay safe--when she interrupted me and said that she "let go of the wall because the other kids were calling her a baby." She wanted to follow the rules, but the kids were so mean. Then she said, "then, when I let go of the wall and tried to swim I started to drown...and those kids didn't even try to save me. They just laughed while I was drowning."

I thought that I was going to throw up.

Ugh. I just wanted to go over there and shake those little 5-year-olds. It was really a paradigm shift for me as a mother. I instantly recognized that there are going to be situations in the very near future that I will have little or no control over. It's a very uncomfortable position.

Not only that, but I've recognized over time throughout the summer that there are always going to be mean people in your life--even as an adult! The snickers and the sneers never really go away--you just have to learn how to hold on to the wall and stay safe despite all of their efforts to the contrary.

But for the record, I hope that those kids go to a different school.