When you can't, then please don't!

Last Sunday, we were invited to a dinner at a friend's home. There were 6 boys between the 3 sets of parents, and the boys had the opportunity to either throw hoops or swim. The 2 boys who were Hans' age chose to swim, and Hans chose to throw hoops with the other boys.

It was going well till Hans decided to sit by the pool. I had all sorts of "support equipment" for him if he wanted to swim. He, however, assured me that he will only dangle his feet in the water. Hans is a chatty kid and I guess he wanted to chat with his friends. A few minutes later, I saw Hans in the pool and struggling. I immediately rushed to him and tried to offer my hand. It took Hans a few seconds to reach my hand, and by then, I had extended myself as much as I could. As Hans grabbed my hand, I almost fell into the pool.

- Dramatic pause and a "side bar" follow -

‎I cannot swim. Even as I was trying to "save" Hans, I knew I wasn't the right person for the rescue mission!

I screamed for Craigley to come and help me. Craigley saunters over like he is reaching for a cocktail. When he did reach my side, I was still holding on to Hans’ hand - he was trying to keep afloat and I was trying not to fall into the pool.

Once Hans was out, I could breathe. All Craigley could say was that I should have allowed Hans to struggle for at least a minute...what was the rush? I looked at him like he had gone insane, but I was more interested in finding out how Hans fell into the deep end?!

Apparently, ASid pushed him!! I looked at my first born like what's wrong with you?! He defended himself by saying that he didn't realize Hans still couldn't swim. Hans had swimming lessons from when he was almost 3 to when he turned 7 - that is a good 4 years of private lessons and group lessons‎, and a lot of time plus a crazy amount of money spent! Last year, I decided to give the kid a break. It was more like he had other classes that kept him busy, and swimming took a back seat. The whole point to this background information on swimming is that in spite of all that time, Hans hasn't learned to swim yet!

I want both the boys to know how to swim. We tried to teach ASid swimming at 18 months of age and at 5 years; both the times, Craigley was the designated parent in the pool and he declared that swimming wasn't really that important. Then, when ASid turned 9, I got him a private instructor; a couple of lessons later, ASid was swimming! I was so happy to have provided my child with this lifesaving skill. I am hoping 9 is the magic age for Hans as well to finally learn how to swim.

To get back to the story now...ASid felt very badly and apologized to his younger brother. Hans wasn't too scarred by the experience. Me? I pulled a couple of muscles in my body, and was in a bit of pain. Craigley, on the other hand, was the only one who didn't understand what the fuss was about!