We were at the pool yesterday and my little Brooklynn stays in the shallow end because she can stand and she is still working on the whole OMG! I can't touch I am going to drowned feeling from her she is the tougher one in letting her know not to panic if she doesn't reach the bottom I told just start swimming. But anyway so we sit at the side of the pool soI can watch her. My middle one Anthony has done so well since we started swimming in the beginning of the summer, he was hardly able to go into the 5 feet and back while swimming but now he is swimming everywhere the deep end and shallow end he is trying to dive in the deep end he is doing great but he is not allowed in the deep end unless I am on that side of the pool until he passes the deep end test and that consists of swimming 2 laps of the pool and treading water for 2 minutes right after swimming the laps without a break. Well he wanted to do the test yesterday and I was really concerned thinking he probably wouldn't be able to make both lengths but he walked right up to the lifeguard and asked to do the test. So I figured you know what lets see what he can do I needed at that point to back off and have confidence in him to at least try! Well he makes both laps of the poo great he starts treading and doing wonderful he gets a minute into it and he has to grab the wall well I am crushed for him because he was so determined to do it and it did Awesome, but he didn't think so his eyes all welled up with tears and he was so upset. I hated it because I couldn't take that pain away from him I kept telling him bud you did not fail you did great I wasn't even sure you were going to make it across both sides of the pool and you did that wonderfully. He was just so sad for a good 20 minutes. I was looking at how he was feeling and I thought to myself I love the determination and the confidence he has in himself that he went for it and ask the lifeguard himself and stepped up to try it! I just don't know how to explain to him at that time that just because you didn't make it all the way he did Great It is not failure it is just more practice that he has to do so he can pass it next time. I am so glad he has the personality of be determined and not giving up because he tried the test again an hour later and couldn't do the treading because he was so tired. But he just has to realize that we are going to fail or not be able to do something the first time but if you keep trying and not give up you will eventually get it he knows it in the back of his head because he did do it a second time but he gets so crushed that it breaks my heart to see him hurting like that. So we are going to be working on treading water for and he is going to do the test right when we get there next time before he starts swimming and I bet he will get it because he was swimming for about an 1 1/2 before he did the test and he almost made it so I bet he will do it!!!! next time I will keep you all posted!
I just thought I would share this because you know we want our kids to be confident and determined and learn from mistakes or just realize you may fall the first few times but try try again, but we hate it when they hurt even when it is something like this or when they fail at something and their hurting and you know that they will do it eventually or it is the best thing for them to fail once in awhile because it will help them grow as a person, but man watching the sadness in his eyes just crushed me. It is so true when they say you wear your heart on your sleeve once you become a parent because it is just open to ache and hurt when your kids do. But the best thing I have learned from this I mean I knew it but yesterday really showed me that I am doing something right because the confidence level was up there with Anthony and that is how I am trying to raise all of them. Don't be ashamed of who you are you walk with your head held high because you are special! I know there is a fine line but I don't let them think they are better then everyone else because I will have to knock them down a few pegs but I do want them to walk and believe in themselves and know that they can do and be anything they want in life!!!!
Sorry this was a long have a good day everyone!
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