My son has a fear...of going under water.
From when he was born he loved going in the bath, adored it and he used to shake with excitement when I took him for his bath. However, should i even get close to washing his hair he would have the biggest fit ever.
Even now at the age of nearly 6 I have to hold his head up so that he doesn't feel afraid of getting water in his face.
Earlier on in the summer holidays I booked him in for swimming lessons hoping that this would help gain confidence in the water. He loves swimming and he finds splashing Mummy highly amusing, but should I attempt to splash him he will go mad at me.
The swimming teacher had the children jumping into the water, he wouldn't do it....he was great in the fact that he would do all the other stuff and he came on leaps and bounds with his swimming but still wouldn't get his face or head wet.
Yesterday was a rather boring day so we decided to go swimming, and walk there...its a long way, but its what he wanted to do, so off we went. Along the way he said he was going to go under water...I know its sounds crappy but I really didn't believe him.
So we got there and we were having a nice time messing about and stuff and I gently reminded him that he said he was going to dunk his head. He gave me a look that was pure challenging!!! he slowly got lower and lower in the water until his eyes were covered and jumped up shouting "I did it i did it"...well done said I the encouraging mother that I try to be, and then I just said "but the top of your head is still dry", off he went again, after about 5 times he went fully under...I was nearly crying with pride!!!
What made this even more special was the swimming teacher was there on the side and Theo only noticed her after he had fully submerged!!!
Well that was that, I hardly saw him above the water the whole time we were there!!
What was a bit disappointing though was Nathan wasn't there for that magical moment, but we are going to go swimming tomorrow afternoon so he can see.
I know to some parents, the thought of their child going under water is an every swimming day experience and to others it may fill them with dread, but me...I'm proud of this because it means my son is moving on and won't retain this fear into later life and that to me is worth everything.
So my question / thought for this entry is...how has your child (or other family member) made you proud this week???
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