Swimming For Juniors and Seniors

You're with your grandchild.  Right or wrong, you want to influence his/her life in a positive direction, maybe help out your kids fill in the areas they don't have time for.

So you spend time (lots of it) with the young 'un.  Haley loves the pool.  She doesn't necessarily want to learn to use her arms and legs properly.  She just wants to have fun.  

In order to earn her wages, the instructor wants to make Haley water-safe--no more relying on the floaties or other swimming aids.   She urges Haley to dunk her face, float, and coordinate all her movements into a lose definition of swimming.

I want more.  You see, my mom made sure I had an excellent swimming teacher, Mr. Green. During the year he taught public school.  In the summer he taught dog-paddlers how to make handstrokes and kicking meld into perfect swimming form.  

I don't remember if I gave the teacher any flak.  All I do remember is that my form is perfect to this day.

So what if Haley doesn't like the teacher?  What if she "fires" her?  What if she makes mom's life pure hell if she doesn't cancel the lessons?

Some things are just too bad.  Some things kids just gotta do choice or no choice.  Sometimes enticements help ("Well, if you do well, we'll ______") and then sometimes it's "Sorry, honey, I know you don't want to do this" and then insist on compliance.

We're talking safety, we're talking tenacity, we're talking getting past the fear, we're talking putting in the effort, we're talking facing failure, and we're talking real life.  And in the end, they'll thank you for it.