Hello! This is the first of possibly many posts. I thought this might be something fun to do, and it might help me to destress (they say talking helps, so I'm assuming typing does too). So to kick it off, we'll start with a crazy swim parent story.
Tuesday I did a swim lesson with a parent who I have worked with before. His son has had lessons with me for 3 years, and the father is concerned about the fact that his 6 year old is not an olympic swimmer even though he has no interest in organized swimming and doesn't devote any time to practice or paying attention to he directions I give during lessons. Anywho, this year his daughter is old enough to do lessons. She has had no experience in the pool without her floaties--in fact, he told her shes not allowed to go into the pool without them, and he didn't bother to tell her before the the lesson that it was ok to get in without them if she was with me--great!! Well, the first lesson he INSISTED that she wear them because she "has a hard time getting used to new people, and I don't want her to have the stress doubled with having to take off her floaties." So the first lesson was a waste, but I assumed this one would be ok. So I start the second lesson without the floaties. She starts to fuss because of the rule, so I try to explain to her (as her father is silent) that its ok because she is with me. We do a few swims to the steps--shes fine. We do a few to the wall--she doesn't like swimming to the wall, and starts crying. Now, crying is something I see all day every day. I will comfort them a bit, but we have a job to do and we're going to get it done. Dad doesn't agree. First he gets in the freaking pool and takes her away from me and starts working with her on his own (why am I here?). Then I try to give him some tips on how to work with her and he ignores them. And (the best part) he busts out the freaking floaties and says "we'll just try to do the lesson without them next time." So I spent the remainder of their time standing in the pool doing nothing. Parents are the worst part about working with children.
Well thats that. Hopefully I'll have more musings for you soon.
-Simone
2 comments:
That's why at Orientations, we schedule the parents into a session called "Letting Go' while their students register for classes for the first time. There are always a few that sneak into the registration part to pick the classes for their kid. :)
We so need to hook you on to Flickr and connect it to your blog and get friends links posted on the side of the blog. You blog is pimp so far though ;)
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