Survival Swimming

I haven’t shared much about my increasing anxiety since being pregnant with Finn (maybe that’s another post to add to my forever long drafts list…..) but one of the biggest things that was causing me to lose sleep at night was my babies being around water.

My in-laws have a lake-house with a busy road and zero entry water to one side and a giant cliff and water below to the other. My parents had (at the time!) a pool that I would have visions of someone forgetting to close the sliding door and leaving it open to just the screen door or wide open to the pool beyond.

So, it was sometime this spring that I saw a Today Show piece about drowning prevention and one of the things they listed as a great option was ISR or survival swimming lessons. I googled my area, fully expecting to have to drive an hour away to find anything like this- but lo and behold- we had an option just down the road. I could not believe it.

I signed my kids up the very next day.

It’s a huge commitment. It’s a 6 week course, FOUR TIMES A WEEK, 10 minute individual lessons. They can’t eat for three hours before and getting two little kids ready for swim and back out of swim on repeat over and over again…is a lot. But my sanity and my sleep was worth every (and it cost a lot of them) single penny.

For the first few days the kids hated it. They would scream and cry as they adjusted and learned what was happening. (I take that back. They were happy as a clam to get into the pool on the first day. Then they quickly learned it was not going to be what they thought and were OVER IT lol)

But with the help of brave mermaid oils and amazing, AMAZING instructors, I watched my kids learn SO much.

How to hold their breath under water. How to float. How to roll over. How to float for a full minute. In a diaper. In full fall clothing. In summer clothing. How to swim until they find a wall. Just- insane what they learned.

A super funny exchange happened one morning on the way to lessons as Mabel was telling me how much she didn’t want to go to swim class, a friend had suggested watching and talking about mermaids to help Mabel feel brave and excited about her return to swim lessons. So, during our pep talk I talked to her about Ariel and how she swims under water etc etc and Mabel looks me straight in the face and says, “Ariel didn’t want to be a mermaid. She wanted to be a human.”

She got me.

But I still made her swim that day anyway.

If you follow me on FB or IG then you’ve likely seen the videos I have posted on my kid’s progress swimming (maybe someday I’ll get some of them uploaded to youtube!). I’ll never stop being amazed and so, so thankful for this program! And if you’re local, be sure to check out Superstar Aquatics. I can not recommend it enough!