Swimming (my weeks are busy now) in Days of My Destiny

So my life has been fairly busy since last week.

Monday - girls have swimming in the afternoon Tuesday - I help in M's class with reading or anything else the kids might need help with Wednesday - girls have swimming in the afternoon Thursday - Mums'n'Bubs coffee in town in the morning, girls have swimming in the afternoon Friday - nothing I am committed to, thank goodness!! Lol.

The swimming thing... basically the girls have been going to the next town on Thursday afternoons for it. The instructor is ... how shall I put it... old school? She takes crap from no-one. Which works for most kids, but not all. She likes Little L so that's fine. With M, I don't think she likes or DISlikes her, she just teaches her how to swim. At this stage it's not SWIMMING even, it's just water familiarisation games that use movements that will become techniques later on. Anyway... a few weeks ago, she forced M to go underwater. Now, before this, M had been waking up every Thursday with a stomach ache, saying she didn't want to go swimming. I had relayed this to the instructor, so she already knew that M was anxious about the lessons. I don't know WHY ON EARTH she forced her to go underwater, but she did, and M had nightmares about it that night and the next. I was NOT happy. I decided I'd cancel that instructor altogether. But I didn't, because right at that time, a male instructor was coming to this town to give swimming lessons and I'd heard GREAT things about him. But because the girls are used to the female instructor in the next town (despite anything that might go wrong), I thought I'd see how comfortable they were with them male (Simon) before cancelling the female. (They work together every Friday so they know each other anyway). The girls LOVE Simon. I think M loves that they are in the little pool above anything else. She also loves that the lessons with Simon are even MORE games-based. She also loves that she is with her friend Matilda there. I didn't know this until the first lesson, but Simon will actually be coming to this town TWICE a week, Monday and Wednesday. Once I found THAT out, I decided I'd DEFINITELY cancel the female instructor. So last week, the girls had swimming on Monday and Wednesday with Simon, and then on Thursday, we went to the next town to the usual lesson with the female. I had planned to cancel next week's lesson with her AFTER last Thursday's lesson. And I'm glad I didn't tell her beforehand, because what I saw on Thursday completely took me by surprise. The girls had the MOST FUN they have EVER had in that class. I could see that this was directly related to the fact that it was their THIRD time in a pool for that one week. I could also see that the female instructor was being a lot more enthusiastic with them. I don't know if this is because she's working on being better at what she does, or if she's trying extra hard with my girls, or if she's doing this as a strategy alongside Simon. ANYWAY, it doesn't matter. All I know is that my girls right now need THREE lessons a week. Their confidence had soared by Thursday, and I have decided that even though I'll be driving around a fair bit for the rest of this term and paying MORE money on lessons, it is an investment that is WELL worth it!!!!!!!!!!

So yeah.

Yesterday as I was driving into town for the Monday lesson, I thought about all the mums around the world, doing this invisible stuff: the driving to and from (childcare, school, work, swimming lessons, soccer games, doctors appointments, etc etc etc). I felt empowered, knowing that I AM one of those women - lurking invisibly in the background, doing what needs to be done, in order to help the children of the world grow confidently and learn new skills. We are awesome.

:)