Sam’s All Wet!
Last Saturday morning, we took Sam to his first “official” swimming lesson. It was official because we don’t count those times last summer that we threw him around in the various pools we’ve visited. Sam loves the water, so much so it’s a little scary. He doesn’t yet recognize the danger water could have, so we are happy, yet weary, of his enthusiasm around large bodies of water: he has no fear. Melissa saw this and suggested we sign him up at the local college pool center for some lessons. I thought this was a pretty neat idea, and folks, Melissa is full of them! 
Now, saying that we went and had a good time would be summarizing things up from Sam’s point of view, not from an adults point of view… Sam gets a fun car ride, wears a funky-cool body glove like bathing suit, plays with Dad in the pool and gets all the attention of the cute life guards… Nice work if you can get it.
Most of the problems started off at the pool itself, in the locker room. The previous class had pretty much vacated by the time Sam and I got into the locker room. Trouble is, there was water on the floor and benches. Nice. So I have Sam in one arm, Sam’s backpack on the same shoulder and my back pack on my other shoulder, but nowhere to put anything down because everything is wet. I am happy.
I manage to slide my pack off my shoulder onto my upraised knee while getting one hand in to pull out my towel. My towel is now in my teeth 
while I am balancing on one foot because my leg is up with the pack on my knee. Then I notice my bathing suit had fallen on the wet floor when I pulled out the towel, and just at that moment Sam decides to lunge away from me to grab a locker door causing me to lose balance and drop my pack on the bench while reaching for Sam… The pack lands on the bench and tilts, thus emptying itself completely in a puddle on the floor. I am very happy.
I will save you the time of describing the logistics as to how I got Sam changed, but I did and went back out into the hall where Melissa was waiting to take Sam to the pool area so I could go change myself. I make the hand off and head back inside the now overly busy locker room and head to my locker to find another father has placed himself beside me with his two children. Not a problem right? Being courteous, I give him a little space to change his kids and I begin undressing myself. I’m standing in my boxers about to go full Monty for the final part of the change, when he calls his two kids over to get changed as they had been playing elsewhere in the locker room. They come running around the corner sliding on the wet floor: his young boy maybe six and his daught… errrrr….
Wait a freakin minute.
This dude brought his daughter into the men’s changing room? This girl was close to, if not, ten years old folks. Now I don’t now about you, but this caught me as being a little odd. I’m all for being comfortable with our bodies and understand there are social situations when you may end up nude in front of others (locker rooms, beaches, bingo halls and some churches), but hold up a freakity freakin’ second… I’m supposed to just let little Johnny out to dangle at my knees (wink wink ladies) while I change in front of this no-longer-too-young-to-not-notice-what’s-going-on-down-there girl? Now, I am not sure if you understand the awkwardness of the situation just by reading my words, but I was at a loss of how to proceed. There were no stalls of any kind and the shower was a communal one giving me no shelter. I certainly didn’t feel like unpacking all our clothes from the way-too-big, 12 by 12 inch locker the school so graciously offers (read heavy sarcasm there people!) and move everything to another locker further away. Then I’m thinking that I’ll just turn around and give em all the back side… You know minimize the damage caused to this girl so unwisely brought into the lions den by her father. So I turn and drop ‘em, then almost fall on my butt by getting my toe hooked into the lining of my bathing shorts while pulling them up. Can you tell I was having soooo much fun and I hadn’t even hit the water yet??? 
I finally get out to the pool area and hop right in before anything else can happen to me. I then turn and Melissa is holding Sam at the edge of the 
pool and he’s got a huge smile on his face: he knows whats coming! In the water we go for a fun filled thirty minutes of games and exercises that are designed to get the kiddies to trust in their accompanying parents and get them used to the water. We had a load of fun together and Melissa will get to try this out next week as it will be her turn. That half hour flew by so fast that Sam and I were disappointed to have to leave the pool. At first, Sam wasn’t kicking at all, just content in letting himself get pulled around. But I am pretty proud of the little guy because by the end of the lesson after much encouragement and varying tactics on my part, he was finally kicking wildly while being held in my arms! His new found source of motivation?
Playing fetch with a rubber ducky. Quack!
We have 9 more weeks to go in his courses, so I am sure we’ll have more adventures in the pool to tell you all about. Until then, kick hard and reach for your own rubber duckies folks!
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I used to love taking my son swimming, it’s such good fun.
(Thanks for the kind comment)
No problem Lom, hope you’re feelin’ better!