Better but not great.
After the fiasco of the previous week when there was only ONE instructor for the whole class this week went much better.
Dave spoke to the YMCA and he was satisfied with their response, "You are 100% right. There is nothing we can say that will make up for the past we can only assure you that this will not happen again. What can we do to make this right for you." That was the gist of the conversation. So Dave and I discussed it and we decided to bring her back but we were going to practice with her first.
Friday night we went to the YMCA and WE practiced jumping in and swimming and splashing. She still cried when she had to jump in, and she was a mess each time we brought her near the edge of the pool in anticipation of being "forced" to jump in but we tried to show her that she will survive and it will be ok. It really helped that Luke LOVES to jump in and he did a great job of showing his big sister how it is done.
Sunday afternoon we went back to the YMCA and again we all practiced. This time we let her play and have more fun but we did make her jump in 2x. She still hated jumping in but there were less tears then on Friday night.
Monday - I was dreading the lesson all day - I knew we were taking her back and I knew that we were going to make her stay at the lesson, I just didn't know how much crying we were going to have to deal with. I took her this week and distracted her all afternoon and in the car on the way over. I talked to her about what ever I could to prevent her from thinking about swim class too much. She was definitely upset about going to swim class but I didn't lie to her - I told her she was going to stay in swim class.
In the locker room we got dressed and the tears started to flow. Then we walked out to the pool deck and the tears came slightly faster as well as the beginning of begging to go home. Then as I was walking her over to the edge of the pool the pulling backwards and bursts of tears came.
I looked over at the female lifeguard and said, "She is slightly scared of men and she is very scared to jump in, I trust your judgement and opinion, what do you want me to do?"
She reached her hands up from the water and said, "Hand her to me, she will be fine."
I said, "If she gets to be too much then tell her to sit on the bench and I will come get her." I handed her my screaming child and walked out of the pool area to the observation area. I am surprised I didn't cry myself.
The lifeguard pulled her into the water and started her swimming right away and Cora started to calm down. She cry/hiccuped the whole lesson and did a crazy looking dance to try to sit down when it came time to jump in - but she did it! She managed to hold it together enough not to make herself sick or be removed from the pool. She did all the skills the others did and at the end she swam across the pool (with her bubble - see below) to the other side all by herself.
Lastly, when I went to pick her up and she came over to me - I made her walk back over to the swim instructor and say, "Thank You" to which the instructor replied, "See you next week." Cora's quick response to that was, "I don't want to go back next week."
But once we got to the locker room she was already calming down and saying good-bye to her friends and telling them that she would see them next week?!?! So, I guess we will spend another Friday night and Sunday afternoon at the swimming pool. . .
Maybe it will get better each week - I can hope can't I?!?! :-)
1 comments:
Oh Erin..We have been anticipating this post all week! We talked about it all week long!!! I am so proud of both of you.