On our family holiday this year Harry got a bit too brave, dispensed with his armbands and had a go at swimming ( or in his case sinking ). I make light of the incident but it was pretty scary stuff at the time. I got to him just as he took his foot off the last step and managed to grab him before he went under. Harry did attend swimming lessons while I was off on maternity leave with Charley but as soon as he went to school and I went back to work we couldn’t commit to a certain day or time each week.After the ‘incident’ and now I can work more flexible around the kids Harry has been attending intensive swimming lessons and is coming on really well. We still are nowhere near taking his bands off but his confidence has grown and he is happy to be in the water.
This wasn’t the case in early September. Even though he said he was o.k at the time, Harry had really scared himself and getting him to get changed into his swimming gear was a challenge in its self. His first lesson went well right up until 5 minutes before the finish when one of the other kids splashed him by accident and he freaked. I spent the next 10 minutes trying to get him to calm down and Harry spent the next 6 days dreading going back to the lessons.Week 2 was o.k and no real issues but Harry wasn’t enjoying his swimming lessons and i needed to make a decision of what to do. I had already paid £100 upfront for a 5-week course which was nonrefundable, but I didn’t want to force Harry into something he wasn’t ready for. After a long chat with Harry, he decided he wanted to be brave and keep going. He didn’t like getting water in his eyes and he didn’t feel confident enough for me to sit on the side ( I go in the water with him ). As a mum, there is a fine line between pushing our children to be independent and letting go too quick. My decision was to remain in the water with Harry during his classes but also to get him to believe he could do it on his own. So how did I do that? Harry believes Spiderman is the ultimate hero so my 1st stop was to buy him some extra special Spiderman swimming shorts, next stop was the biggest and most robust armbands I could find and then I threw away his £2.99 Home Bargains swimming goggles and ordered him a pair of Olympic standard, best of the best swimming goggles from SwimFreak. It helps that the googles had mirrored UV lens so when he wears them he looks like Spiderman. Always one to go above and beyond I took the extra step to mix up some ‘confidence dust’ ( 2 types of glitter and a few stars thrown in for good measure). Harry thinks the fairies gave it me and each week I pretend to sprinkle a bit on his head before each lesson. The combination of SuperHeroes, Fairies, and watertight swimming goggles has really helped Harry with his confidence and now he no longer dreads his lessons or the occasional splash of water on his face. It’s one of the best feelings in the world to see your child overcome a fear and with a little of a magic and the purchase of good quality equipment he is well on the way to Olympic Gold ( Well I can dream too, cant I ? )