Retiring

Violet has decided to retire from formal swim lessons. She's been taking classes for a year and a half and she is an excellent swimmer. About a year ago, she passed the goals I had for her in taking the classes.

Last Monday she didn't want to go to class. She'd gotten up early for Greek Mythology. She was tired. It had been a horribly busy month. On the way to class she started crying. I suggested she get through a few more classes, wait to make the decision until things had settled down to normal. She was okay with that, or so I thought, but half way through class she was crying again. She said afterward she was sick to her stomach. After she changed we stopped at the front desk and gave notice that she's taking a "swim break."

The place where she swims doesn't have sessions. It is open ended. You can start any time. You can quit anytime, but with a one month notice. Her last lesson is in a few weeks.

Tonight I made her go to do a make up from a class she'd missed. I was feeling awful about it, but the classes are quite pricey. I wanted her to go since we'd paid for it. The make up was supposed to be with the instructor she'd had at the last level. We got there and found it the instructor was off, and the aquatic director was actually running the class. Violet is a little afraid of her. Mom guilt levels were sky high.

I watched her class from the lobby, and low and behold, Violet was having fun. The AD had them try pull buoys. Check out the link if you don't know what they are. You hold them between your legs to float and just swim with your arms. Violet really got the hang of them right away. The other two kids in the class, not so much. The AD also gave her some pointers on her butterfly stroke. It was the best class she'd had in a long time.

We discussed it on the way home. The pressure is now off. It doesn't matter if she advances to another level or not. She's retiring to move on to recreational lap swimming. We already have our open swim pass and plan to start going to open swim once school starts up and most of the little urchins are back in prison. I told Violet how I loved to use pull buoys too, and we ordered the one in the link to take with us to our open swim workouts. Violet even suggested we spend about a half an hour working towards improving our endurance each time we go to the pool.

Obviously, the time was right for her to retire. I had been worried that she made the decision when she was too tired. But I can see now, that was part of what was tiring her out. If she decides she wants to start up again, we can do so at any time. But I don't think she will. She made it a lot farther in formal lessons than I ever did. I flunked minnow three times and quit. She's almost graduating from stingray to turtle. She has 4 more lessons to take. And she's actually looking forward to them as she counts down.

Mom Guilt can take the night off.