Charlotte has no fear of the water. Since she was a baby she has loved putting her head under water. Anyone who has seen her in a kiddie pool can attest that she is fearless and crazy.
Charlotte is extremely fearful of new people and situations. Until the last 6 months she screamed at many relatives that she has known her whole life. I thought we had finally turned a curve with the stranger danger so I enrolled her in swim lessons hoping she would start to learn enough to get to the side of the pool if she ever fell (jumped is probably more likely in her case) in.
The first two days were pretty good. A little complaining about being cold at the end- kind of staring at the teacher like "What do you want me to do?"
Then day 3 she realized this wasn't just for fun and she couldn't just leave. From the start of the lesson until the end was one constant screaming session unless she was dunked under water. She stood by the gate and cried, "I all done. I so cold. My tummy hurts. I go home now. I no like it!" I tried comforting her but I never went in the gate or let her out until the end of the extremely long and unpleasant 30 minutes. The swim teacher- who was so patient and awesome just kept hauling her back in. The second day I tried going around the side of the house so she couldn't see me in case it was just Charlotte putting on a show for me. It didn't help. She kept calling "Mommy mommy!" and when that didn't work, "Erin... Erin.!!!" Day three the teacher had me sit by the pool to help her stay in the water and that seemed to help quite a bit but not as much as you'd think. I was ready to call it quits and not put all of us through a second session of screaming torture (I think it's what they use on prisoners of war). I knew it was much harder on the teacher and other kids and Charlotte wasn't learning as much. Discouraged, frustrated, and embarrassed sums up my feelings at that point.
Then the last day of session 1 was about 50/50 crying and having fun. I think she finally realized that she liked it, she knew the routine, and she knew screaming wasn't getting her what she wanted. The water also warmed up which might have been the real reason! This was the first day the teacher saw the real Charlotte in the water- diving under any chance she gets and letting go of the side with complete faith someone will fish her out.
The second session the other moms said things like, "Are you sure this is the same kid? She's doing so well!" "Wow look at her!" She was constantly asking for it to be her turn. She would cut ahead of kids to leap off the diving board. She had so much fun. She can do a little basic swimming now- get to the side, push off the bottom, monkey walk to the stairs, get rings off the bottom of the pool... I'm excited to practice with her the rest of the summer.
Audrey would come over and watch the sleeping twins so I could just bring Charlotte most of the time, my friend Stephanie Ison's daughter Brielle was in the class while she was remodeling her new house.
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