SLM 2010

Background: Once when I was a kid, I remember being at a store with my mom shopping for shoes.  At some point in our shopping, one of my sisters became unhappy.  Which is the pc way to say, "HAD A MAJOR MELTDOWN."  I remember screaming, yelling and possibly, my mom picking her up and dragging her out of the store.  We laugh about it now, but I remember as a kid thinking, "What in the world was that all about?  How embarrasing!"

Current fact: I've (so far, knock on wood) never had a kid have a meltdown in a store causing me to bodily remove them from the premises.

Get to the point already:  While I've never experienced my own child's meltdown in a store, I now can say without doubt, that we are now the proud owners of our very own "Epic Meltdown" story.  Except that our story will be referred to for future generations as the "Swimming Lessons Meltdown" not the "Shoe Store Meltdown."

I thought you were getting to the point:  We've been doing swimming lessons this week.  All five big kids are getting "private lessons*," which means, one kid with one instructor. One of our children has always been a little scared of the water.  Strangely this fear didn't become epic until day two of swimming lessons (probably due to the fact that Dad was there day one).  Day two started rough when said child refused to get into the pool. Things spiraled quickly downhill from there and lots of blood curdling screaming was heard, including "OWWW!  OUCH!  STOP!  I JUST WANT TO GET OUT!   NOOOOOoooooooooooo!.  For the entire lesson.  So proud!  My other children looked like they were ready to catch the first flight out of there, and I was sorely tempted to tag along.  When the misery lesson finally ended and the emotion had mostly passed, we discussed lots of fun things, among them, the apology that would be offered to the teacher. The apology was offered and we went home.  Whew.  The end.  (Except for the whole rehash the incident with Dad part.)

Is this post ever going to end?: Yet, tonight I feel happy.  Somehow, somewhere between day two and today, day five, a change occured.  I don't know if it was our prayers or our big pep talk discussion about "sometimes we just have to do scary things" or if he just figured it out himself. But today he swam like a pro.  He did amazing at lessons.  When we went to swim next door he realized he didn't need his floatie anymore.  He didn't have to hover near the safetly of the steps.  He could jump off the diving board and swim to the end of the pool.  All by himself.

And that is why, in years to come, we may chuckle a little about the big "Swim Lesson Meltdown" but we will know that in the end it was all good.**

(Did you see how trickily I put pictures up of ALL the kids, in age order, so you won't know which kid was having the "Swim Lesson Meltdown?"  Unless of course you noticed that I was talking about a boy, which would eliminate Hootis, unless of course it really was her and I was just being tricky......cause I'm tricky like that.)

**somehow this post started out funny (I hope) but ended up sappy.  Deal with it.  It's late and apparently my "funny" fell asleep a while ago.

*The lessons have been amazing for all the kids.  I'm convinced they've all learned more this week than they've learned in years of group swimming lessons.

4 Comments

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Whom? Whom is it?

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You killing me here............I want the details people!!

I suppose I shall drag it out of you in person . . . I have my guess, but hmmmm....

**KT

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Hey wait a second! AND who was the sister?? That one I have absolutely no idea who you are talking about......but I'm sure it was not little angelic me. :)

**KT

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I'm interested in your experience with private lessons. #2 had a mini-meltdown of sorts on Saturday at group swim lessons, but eventually got in the water of her own accord. Someone later in the day mentioned that we can do private lessons in the neighborhood pool. I'm strongly leaning towards checking out that option. This particular child may do better with one-on-one help. So glad your week ended on a good note. :)

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