When you are surrounded by backyard pools the way we are, swimming lessons at a young age are a necessary evil. Hunter could swim the length of the pool when he was 2 1/2 years old. Bennett took a little more time – and Cannon is taking the cake for the longest time. In his defense, he hates water. All water. He hates the bathtub, he hates the lake, he hates the pool. He does not like to get wet. And although I knew it was a long shot to get him swimming this year, we wanted him water safe (falling into the pool and being able to get to the edge)
We enrolled him in the lessons and he cried and cried, he wasn’t alone, his other swim mates disliked the water like him. The teacher assured us it gets better as lessons go on. (Which I knew from experience with my other kids) Surprisingly, Cannon was so excited to go to swim lessons every day, but the minute he got in the water he panicked. The other two girls warmed up pretty quickly and by the end of the first week there were no tears. Cannon on the other hand stayed strong until the very end!
But I’m happy to report, despite the tears he made a lot of progress. He’s not swimming the length of the pool anytime soon, but chances are if he falls in, he’ll be able to either get to the edge, or turn to his back to float. We’ll try again next summer for actual swimming!
