Signed us up for Toddler level swim class at the local community rec center. Stocked up on swim diapers and already had many different swim trunks for him to model at class. First day, Sam was a little unsure but warmed up pretty quick. He was even rather amenable to floating on his tummy and back and bobbing up and down. After many laps of "floating" we went to a different area of the pool to let them jump in off the side of the pool and practice going underwater. This is where things took a drastic change. Most of the kids were standing at the edge of the pool, holding their mom's hands, and jumping in the water. They'd come up from under the water smiling and laughing. Sam sat on the edge of the pool with a death grip on my hands and after a joint "ready, set, go" he rigidly slid off the edge, stiff armed, while I guided him chest deep into the 85 degree bath, errr, pool water. That's it. We didn't progress much from there. Tried to dunk him under while I held him (as instructed.....trust me, I didn't want to do it) and after several tries his face went underwater to about eye level. He came up sputtering, gasping, and glaring at me. Thought about crying, changed his mind, and said "Nooo! No face!!!" I agreed. No more face. The saving grace of swim lessons were the last 10 minutes where the kiddos stood in the shallow end and played with various water toys. Sam always recovered from whatever indignity he had just suffered in time to happily play toys.
This was a two week class. Did things improve?? No. In fact, he regressed. The last two classes he whined and cried and just generally looked miserable and tortured the entire time. After the last class we got a certificate of participation. I proudly hung that sucker on the fridge.....those were two long weeks.
In all seriousness I'm glad we took the class. It was probably more fun for me than him, and I had a great time swimming with my buddy.
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