Legalized Torture

Today was the last day of a two week session of swim lessons for Sam. Let's just say that things didn't go exactly as I expected. He normally loves the water and isn't really afraid of it, so I thought that this would no big deal. Hmpf. We even signed him up at Mission pool, which is further from our house, just so that we could have Brooke (Sam's beloved sunbeam teacher) be his instructor. He was so excited to get started! Andrew, on the other hand, was pretty disgusted that he wasn't allowed in the water, he kept trying to take his clothes off. Here they are waiting before the first lesson starts...

Getting ready to start, a little nervous but still willing...

Finally in the water and with somewhat of a smile on his face...

Day Two: WHAT HAPPENED?? That was the beginning of the downhill spiral.

Things just got worse when I talked to the doctor that night and found out that he should be wearing earplugs. The trauma of the earplugs could not be acurately captured with a camera. Talk about screaming...torture...for both of us! Okay, I wasn't screaming, but I wanted to! I was mortified. All of the other moms whose kids were so well behaved watching me wrestle with my hysterical child. Finally, I got the earplugs in, tore his shirt off of him and literally dragged him to the pool and dumped him in to Brooke. As I turned to go back to my seat, seriously horrified at the scene that I had just caused, the moms who were sitting around me throughout the ordeal started clapping! I was a little confused but then they said that I'd handled it so well and started sharing their war stories about kids with tubes in their ears and other swim lesson nightmares. That made me feel a little better. For a little while. Until the next day, and the next, and the next when the scene was repeated (but never quite as bad as the first day).

Andrew found ways to amuse himself but still was pretty disappointed that I never let him in the water. Joe came a couple of days to watch. We were hoping that having daddy there to cheer him on would help Sam, but it didn't. At least he got a little escape from work!Final Day: It was about 70 degrees outside and overcast, I wished that I had brought a sweatshirt for myself, yet I was forcing my child into the pool. What a great mom I am! They put them in lifejackets and threw them (literally) into the deep end. Apparently, he got the hang of it and relaxed, but there were a lot of screaming and tears involved.

Well, we survived and I'll probably make him do it again next year...at least we won't have to deal with earplugs next year. I just hope that he's not too traumatized!