Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Little Fish

Dylan loves to go swimming. Good thing, because his name means of the sea so it looks like we won't have to change his name anytime soon.

The rain has been steadily coming down all day and the local children's museum is closed on Tuesdays so we opted for our local aquatic center.

The only public swim offered in the spring is early in the morning or late at night after Dylan goes to bed. The morning swim is overcrowded with elderly exercisers who all enjoy swarming around Dylan on their water noodles and repeatedly telling him that he is beautiful. One woman reached out her arms this morning and Dylan willingly went to her. I swear she melted a little with him in her arms.

Dylan loves to kick and splash and I teach him how to float on his back as we swirl around the pool. We haven't signed him up for baby swimming classes yet because I don't think he would benefit much from them until he is a bit older. Today the lifeguard on duty decided to put her two cents in as to how she thinks I'm doing as a swimming instructor. The conversation went like this:

Lifeguard: "Has he taken swimming lessons yet?"
Me: Thinking that she was going to comment on how comfortable he is in the water, "No, not yet".
Lifeguard: "Well you're doing it wrong."
Me: *blinks*
Lifeguard: "You should be holding him facing you at all times. Not on his back and not looking in that direction. Just in case you can't see his mouth go under the water. Y'know, if you stop to talk to someone you want to be able to see his mouth just in case he dips his head in."
Me: "Um, Okay."


She went on to tell me how water noodles and water toys are great for him, too, but I stopped listening after being reprimanded for holding my son incorrectly. Maybe she took training on how to hold a baby in the water, she might even have her certificate pinned up on a wall somewhere, but that doesn't give her the right to tell me that I might let Dylan drown by putting his head on my shoulder while he kicks in the pool. Please trust me. I'm anal. My eyes don't leave Dylan for one minute while I have him in the water. I watch him like a hawk while he sits in three inches of water during his nightly bath. Accidental drowning is horrifying and it is always on my mind.

I'm taking this unsolicited advice a bit too harshly. I know that. I'm being one of those overprotective moms who rolls her eyes when another mom talks about her plans to wean before the child is five years old. Motherhood is freakishly annoying when dealing with unsolicited advice.

The water was cold today anyway, so we got out soon after we hopped in. As you can see from this picture Dylan wasn't happy to be pulled from the pool.