I had 'that kid' at swimming - Real Mum story on MoM

It was my turn to have ‘that child’ at the pool.

My 4 year old just advanced to a higher level at swimming. He had been swimming on his own, without hubby or I in the teaching pool with him, for close to 2 years. He was excited about swimming with the bigger kids. I was excited to see him learning strokes.

Then we arrived at the pool … and my happy 4 year old disappeared and a creature – something like a cat trying to escape from the wash basin – emerged.

I tried being the good cop. ‘If you go swimming, I’ll hire Ninja Turtles on dvd for you.’

Hubby tried bad cop. ‘If you don’t go swimming, I’m giving all your Spiderman costumes away’.

By the end of the half hour all we had was one frazzled mum, one p’d off dad, and one 4 year old in a dry cossie.

We’ve since introduced him to a little girl who’s in the same class, and hoping that having a friend in the water will do the trick. Wish us luck!

Posted by TajKai, 10th April 2013

11 Comments

- - sars_angelchik said
  - 03 Nov 2016
    2:49 pm
Love the descriptions! Good luck withe the swimming. My husband and I have been trying to teach our daughter to swim for a little while. She is now 4 as well and we are looking to maybe get her some swimming lessons during school holidays. I hope that it works because she won’t listen to us!

- - june11 said
  - 22 Jul 2016
    9:59 pm
Ours flatly refused to get in the pool a few weeks ago. No amount of trying via different methods worked

- - Nas01 said
  - 04 Jan 2016
    8:16 pm
Good Luck, Hope he gets back into it.

- - mom165081 said
  - 26 Dec 2015
    12:46 am
We have had very similar when there have been teacher changes and/or going up a grade. Putting them into the lower grade again can help (there is nothing wrong with doing this – sometimes it helps alleviate their own fears – it is also way better than not swimming at all). Our daughter was a screamer – everyone knew her antics – now she is a role model swimming student and her strokes are used to demonstrate for other students. Hang in there and it will work out. Swimming with friends can help too. Hope it worked for you – don’t make it a necessary part of lessons though!!

- - mom81879 said
  - 08 Nov 2015
    6:09 pm
What a strange scenario! Fir him to be so excited about something and then not want to do it. Fingers crossed you finally got him in the pool

- - kymichelle said
  - 27 Sep 2015
    8:01 pm
My son had a similar lesson when he started – luckily it was Dad there and not me

- - mom81879 said
  - 23 Sep 2015
    10:55 am
Oh no, what a drama! Fingers crossed having that little friend has helped him cope and he’s enjoying his swimming lessons

- - mum4107 said
  - 25 Jun 2015
    5:48 am
As a swimming teacher I see that a lot. Kids like routine. I hope everything improved

- - mom57522 said
  - 30 Sep 2014
    2:12 pm
My little one used to hate change as well!

- - eestigirl said
  - 30 Jun 2014
    10:56 pm
I think we’ve all been the mum of “that kid” at some stage of their life: )

- - aleishagebert said
  - 05 Mar 2014
    1:31 pm
He just decided it wasnt his day. Keep trying. Good luck