First trip to the pool

I finally learnt to swim a couple of years back and thanks to my brother for that. I am not a great swimmer coz I have no formal training but I can manage to stay afloat and also cover some distance in the pool. In times when we were young swimming was not an essential part and parents never enrolled kids for swimming classes.

Here in Australia, every Tom,dick and Harry knows how to swim. Kids are sent to the pool as early as 6 months. My little one loves her bath tub too and refuses to come out of it unless forced. Hence I decided to take her to the baby pool in the community health center. To my surprise, she yelled her lungs out for the first 5-10 minutes. To pacify her I got into the pool myself, started playing with her but in vain. She started to scream even more louder.I was so confused what should I do, let her yell or take her in my arms. And with lot of courage and hesitance, I decided to leave her on her own. Within minutes of not getting my attention she calmed down and started to look around. She began to pedal her legs and hands in the water and splashing some water on her and she looked so thrilled.After sometime I just took her out of the pool and embraced her. Hope she enjoys her second trip again today.

I was happy that she did calm down at the end and was happy splashing water with her tiny limbs. And as a parent I learnt to be strong and be able to make that switch between pampering and pretending to ignore.