Swimming

My kids love the water, I guess that's not a surprising revelation since I think most kids love it. Sprinklers, lakes, puddles, bathtubs and of course, the dreaded pool.

That said, I have realized that I am "that" mom. Let me explain. I  was once sitting around a table having coffee with a bunch of "play date moms"  ( these are other moms who are friends that have materialized out of the need to socialize our kids, keep our sanity and get out of the house)  We were talking about mom things like healthy snacks, mom pants and lessons of sorts for our littles, (because they have to be in some kind of lessons from the moment of birth or your a neglectful parent...but that's another blog post)

Wow, I get sidetracked so easily...where was I??  Lessons!

A kid friendly early start lesson of course is swimming. I am all for it since:

 a) its good to know that you won't drown later in life hopefully
b) its pretty fun for kiddos, it doesn't even seem like learning or work
c) my parents never put me in swimming lessons and I have no cool badges like "seal" or "otter" in my memory box and it still annoys me ;)

I am super against it because:

a) if your kid is under 8 you have to be in the water with them
b) I hate swimming in public pools
c) I hate swimming in public pool. ;)

So like all moms you just have to suck it up and do stuff that's maybe not great fun for you. So Mia was in lessons as a baby, with me of course in my maternity swimsuit feeling super great about myself ( I was pregnant with Coy when Mia was a baby and in all these mom and me lessons. That last part about feeling super great was a big fat lie in case you missed that) However by luck or great planning on my part, Chad has been able to be in lessons with the other kids sine then and I didn't even feel bad about pawning off that duty because he loves the water, so I happily pawned it off ....until now.

The kids are 7,6,5,5,3 and its summer and they love to swim and we want to take them on the lake more, in the boat more and to things like the big water slide parks. So refer above to the  "..not drowning later in life hopefully" We still need to work on that a little.

Chad of course works all day and I am at home all day with the kids in the summer and the YMCA offers lessons in the daytime hours now and not just evenings and weekends, ( darn, prime time dad lesson time) So for the sake of good time management I am taking the kids to the lessons for a few weeks now.

 I was thinking that since they are not " mommy and me" age anymore I would get to sit in a nice plastic chair or wooden bench on the sidelines and lovingly observe them frolicking in the water. Um nope. I have them all in back to back lessons. Now can you try to keep all your other kids out of the pool to play for 30 to 45 min and wait for their sibling to finish a lesson? Not gonna happen in my world. If any of them are in the pool and not in a lesson, momma needs to be in the pool too. Crap.

Ok, well I put on that bikini, covered it up of course in a tank top/t shirt then jumped in. I like to linger on the walls, body in the water, back to the wall arms resting on the wall and watch the kids play. ( They can swim a little, I don't need to hold them or anything) SO for the first few days I got in the pool but got to just relax, mostly cheer and observe and it wasn't too bad.  I was feeling ok. Not great mind you since its TWO HOURS in the pool in the morning and then another hour in the evening to get them all in lessons, but I was feeling ok.

Then yesterday happened. The boys were fighting all morning and the pool didn't bring a cease fire. Yvette was in her lesson, and the boys were intense. They were kicking and splash fighting while I was caught in the cross fire, they were trying to drown each other, pulling and grasping mom for their lives of course. They were stealing goggles, doing cannonballs and being generally super playfully annoying. I was soaked.

Here is where I become that mom. I put on the suit, I put my hair in a bun and I go in the water. I am not doing cannonballs, or searching for rings or playing pool volleyball. I'm not playing what time is is Mister shark, or dumping buckets of water on them or me.  I'm just not. I'm making sure they don't die and planning the rest of the million things we have to do that day in my head...and I don't want to get wet. Bad problem to have when in a pool with 5 kids. I just want to be there for safety and not interaction, haha.  My mom friends would always complain about " that mom" who wouldn't be playing in the water, or who you could tell didn't want to wreck her hair or makeup ( I don't wear makeup in the pool, but I don't want my hair wet, I just don't, sue me.)

 SO I was pretty annoyed trying to hold it in yesterday when Reed came up after a monster canon ball jump gasping for air. He simultaneously spit water directly into my eye and flung a big wad a snot hitting me square in the cheek. I didn't speak a word but my eyes said it all...he swam far, far away and must of told the others since no one came near me for the last 5 min of the morning. I am the devil mom, I am no fun and if I scar them for life over this fact I think I can deal with that.

Then, you know what happened today? The kids were amazing. They played, they interacted with me in a fun but non soaking way. I helped them all onto the rope, pulling them far back and pushing them hard until they jumped off that pool rope like tiny Tarzan's of the pools. Yvette was jumping off the diving board unassisted and getting in and out of the water all alone. It was a total pleasure to watch them play....with eachother. They had a great time and you know what, I did too. Hmm. Was a pretty fun morning and I even debated jumping off that pool rope. I didnt, BUT I thought about it, briefly :)