Philosophical Monday: Learning to Swim
This Saturday, by husband will don a pair of swim trunks and take our daughter to her first swim class, and so the real teaching begins.
All of my adult life, I’ve thought about lessons I’d like to pass down to my children: The Golden Rule, Respecting Money vs. Loving or Hating Money, How To Be Different.
I was practically chomping at the bit to instill all sorts of values into Betty as she was incubating inside my belly. But then for the first few months of her life, she’s pretty unteachable. Forget values, she was way too busy learning how to breastfeed and swallow and smile. Smiling! She had to learn it from scratch.
It was a bit anti-climatic, really. Here I was ready to be the teacher, only to realize that for first few months, my only duties were to keep her alive and give her plenty of nuture. That was all.
But as it turned out, keeping a baby alive is a pretty intense job. I can’t imagine what would have happened if she had come out needing both diaper changes and life lessons. God did good with his design of the parent-baby relationship, I think. As she learned to do things for herself, I learned to do things for her.
But now, she’s ready to be taught something. CH will take her to the pool and gently show her how to put her head underwater. Then I’ll continue with the lessons when I come back from Europe. She’ll eventually learn how to swim and I will learn how to guide her in learning to swim.
That’s what I hadn’t counted on when envisioning my role as a mother. I thought I would be the teacher and Betty would be the student in all things. But so far we’ve both been learning. A lot. It’s the unexpected bonus of the job I signed up for.
It really is an eye opener when you realize how little parenting actually goes into the first half a year of life. My husband is working at home and is the primary caregiver at the moment and he's always so concerned that he's not spending enough time teaching our five month-old. I've assured him that as long as she's alive when I get home from work that he's done his job well.
Hahaha! Exactly!
It really is an eye opener when you realize how little parenting actually goes into the first half a year of life. My husband is working at home and is the primary caregiver at the moment and he's always so concerned that he's not spending enough time teaching our five month-old. I've assured him that as long as she's alive when I get home from work that he's done his job well.
Hahaha! Exactly!
my little ones are take swim lessons and daddy is in charge of that. he doesn't get in the water anymore, but they appreciate him taking and watching their swimming lessons.
my little ones are take swim lessons and daddy is in charge of that. he doesn't get in the water anymore, but they appreciate him taking and watching their swimming lessons.