it’s been a long day.
I seriously considered not bothering going to swimming this morning, but Big was adamant she wanted to, even after I explained the timetable in detail. Maybe she doesn’t get tight timescales though – I’m fairly sure she tells the time better than she lets on, but I’m not sure she sequences the hours in the day all that well.
Anyway, we belted off to do some shopping on the way, and got to swimming just nicely on time. Small seemed reasonably happy to sit on the windowledge with a box of raisins, which is an improvement on his attitude the last couple of weeks, and Big started really well in her lesson, managing to swim on her back with two floats, a bit stop start, but a very good attempt. Lots of encouragement from me, but I have noticed that the teacher has a very different attitude this term to last – she either had a very bad christmas, or she is expecting rather more from this group. I have also noticed that they mainly seem to be rather larger than Big, and given that she is very tall for her age, I’m wondering if they are quite a bit older.
She managed once or twice with the one float, then something suddenly went wrong. It had something to do with actually getting on to her back to do the swimming – I didn’t see anything horrid happen but she was in absolute hysterics. The teacher spent a couple of minutes trying to calm her down and persuade her to have another go, but she wasn’t having any of it. I thought we were best to just quit while we were ahead – I thought she’d done very well, and we could use the extra ten minutes. But I was too late, she was already well into the cycle of hysterical tantrum, and I had to blackmail her out of the pool, frogmarch her through the shower and dry and dress her myself, all with screaming and shouting throughout. Met another mother who said she’d gone through exactly the same thing and ended up dropping lessons for a year – I don’t want to do that, but many more of these performances and I will.
Anyway, back home for a very quick lunch, and only 15 minutes late into Sheffield. Met Barbara and Kris in the carpark, and Jan was waiting in the foyer. I’ve got to commend the Lyceum – Barbara had called to ask if we could bring a cake, and they gave us use of a private function room for the entire afternoon. Proved very useful for small girls to run around manically during the intervals, so that they were able to sit/kneel/stand 😉 fairly quietly during the drama.
Kris’s D was absolutely rapt throughout, Jan’s C, pretty similar. E seemed reasonably fascinated, although Big sitting next to her proved too much of a distraction. In fact, Big was easily the most distractible of them all, which surprised me a bit – I’d expected her to be blown away by it. But she was expecting Barbie on stage – I think maybe I hadn’t prepared her well enough. I enjoyed it though – heathen that I am I wasn’t aware of how good it was, although Kris tells me it was excellent 😉
Jan and C came back here for some tea, and Jan relieved me of a few books. Not nearly enough in Tim’s opinion, but it’s a start. Also lovely to come home to a clean and tidy kitchen!
And to celebrate, I’ve done nothing tonight but chat. Which was rather silly, given how much I’ve got to do. Going to bed now though.
Comments
7 responses to “swimming and dancing”
We chatted about work!
I think Jax means she had to "blackmail her out of the pool"
Oh…I was starting to understand why big objects to the swimming lessons so much untill Tim’s clarification….
Yes, I was having a certain sympathy at that point as well.Glad the ballet was good.
Thank you. Hate typos, don’t you?
Jax, Poppy did a term and a half of swimming lessons from just over 4, and stopped when one day she didn’t want to get in the pool and the instructor took hold of her arm, which horrified her (and I wasn’t too pleased either). She didn’t want to go again for a long time, and in fact didn’t start again until she was almost *7*, and in the 5 terms since then we’ve never had the slightest problem. Tilda started when she was 5 1/2, and apart from some reluctance in the 2nd or 3rd lesson, again, no problems. I want Elijah to have swimming lessons, but I probably won’t even put his name on the waiting list till the summer, which’ll mean he should get to start next January. I do feel that a certain amount of maturity can help.
I went through a term and a bit of Poppy having tantrums at trampolining, and I know it’s hellish, and I don’t feel we should put ourselves through it for the sake of feeling that they ‘have’ to be doing whatever lessons.
Also, do I understand that you stay by the poolside? We’re not allowed to here, and I wondered if you being out of sight might help? Less of an audience perhaps …
And rofl too – Poppy was most indignant when we saw Matthew Bourne’s Nutcracker that it was nothing like the Barbie version!
I do feel that it’s important that Big learns to swim – but right at the moment, we’re going to lessons because she is utterly determined she wants to. I have to say that yesterday was a huge improvement on the first lesson, although still pretty horrendous – I’m hoping that a week in CP with lots of time in the water might crack a few of the problems and make life easier back at lesson time. But if we have another lesson like yesterday’s I’m stopping them – I’m *not* putting myself through that every week.
I don’t know whether we’re allowed to leave them iyswim – parents sit on the windowsills as that is the only place to sit. I might have a word with the teacher and ask if me waiting in the changing room would work, but tbh, I’d rather be able to see what’s going on. We’ve discussed Tim taking her, as that tends to have a very different result as well, but atm, he’d struggle given that there’s nowhere to sit.
Hoping to spend lots of time with you in the toddler pool this week, so no doubt we’ll chat about this then 😉