Jumping Like a Submarine

"How are swimming lessons going?" I have been asked several times.

Well, let me tell you...

There have been some rough waters.

The first few days of the week, O did admirably well: jumping to me, blowing bubbles, kicking his feet, going under multiple times each day. All the expected very beginning swimmer types of things.

Thursday took a turn for the worse for no apparent reason. No longer would he jump to me "like a submarine," my feeble attempt at making submerging for a split millisecond sound more appealing. He would scream and cry and try to reason his way out of it. I forced him to go under one itty-bitty time, and then we just played the rest of the lesson. Maybe that was not a smart Mommy move because Friday went much worse.

Friday, Jeremy had the day off and was excited to see O's progress after his first week. It did not go well. There was an awful lot of screaming, begging, fit-throwing, and tear-shedding.

He was excited to jump to Daddy at first, but once he figured out that Daddy let him go under most jumps, the freak-out began. A full-blown, attention-attracting, blush-inducing fit ensued.

It got worse.

The goal of the day was to "swim" from parent to Teacher with the child's face in the water. The screams intensified even before Teacher plunged O under and torpedoed him to Jeremy. Daddy was kinder and helped O keep his head above water, but O was still not appreciative. After that, Owie was done with class and swimming. "Forever," he said.

We took the weekend off.

Today went horribly. O spent 25 of the 30 minutes in time out on a deck chair for refusing to follow any directions. He would not even jump if I promised no submarine jumps. He was screaming at the top of his lungs, jumping all around the deck, snot-flinging and hands wildly waving around. An all-star fit if I've ever seen one. He was to sit in the chair until he could exercise some self-control and rejoin me in the pool.

So what did Mommy do? I had to swim around by myself and appear as if I was having the time of my life without him, hoping he would be convinced of all he was missing, change his behavior and join me. Do you know how embarrassing this was? Splashing around with a ball and a bucket all alone while my sweet Boy screamed himself silly on a deck chair. I just wanted to go home, but I do not want to reinforce this behavior by letting him off the hook.

Am I doing the right thing? This is one of those times that I just don't know how hard to push him. Do I make him go under and do all the swimmish things he refuses to do so he will learn and hopefully like to swim? Of course, he could be turned off forever. Or do I give up any expectations and just have fun splashing with him? I will not mislead him, so when he asks if he is going to go under, I tell him the truth. Maybe it's better to avoid the question and surprise him with a dunk? But I need to be honest with him. I don't know. A mother's dilemma for sure, especially when disobedience or refusal to follow orders plays in to it.

Oh well...

There's always tomorrow.