He tends to be a *cautious* kid when it comes to trying something new. Take his surf'n'slide. When Berry Guy brought it home, Berry Boy was SUPER excited. We set it up. We watched the demonstration dvd (and watched it, and watched it again)...and it STILL took him at least a day of watching his friend surf it up for him to try it. In the meantime, he showed me his "belly flop", which consisted of him walking up to the surf'n'slide, carefully laying down, and getting the top of his forehead wet.
I advised him that THAT was not a belly flop, THAT was simply laying-down-in-the-water-carefully.
So I wasn't surprised at his reaction when his swim teacher had them all get on lifejackets so that they could jump in to the "deep water".
Still confident...
totally unsure...
and clinging to the wall in abject terror.
Back to the safety of the shallow end (phew)...
Starting to look brave again...
oh yeah, that deep water is a piece of cake (snort)...
So after this traumatic lesson, I thought the next day would be a breeze (not - he flatly refused to get in the deep end OR within 2 feet of me, his loving mother). On the way home we had this conversation:
BB: I think that tomorrow I will go in the deep water. And maybe, after swimming, if I go in the deep water, we could go have donuts with our friends
Me: hmmmm...I suppose... (apparently he did not know that we had already made plans to go for donuts after swimming with our friends) I give this a bit of thought, because I don't want to push him so hard that he's stressed and doesn't enjoy lessons anymore, so I add "but you know, even if you don't end up swimming in the deep end we can still go for donuts" (I'm such a benevolent mother...really, I just want to go for donuts)
BB: oh. Then maybe I won't go in the deep water
Me: (snorting) uh, no. If you're going to be like that, then we won't be going for donuts (shoot - this place has REALLY good donuts)
BB: well....I don't think that I'll have time for donuts anyway
Me: Oh really. why exactly might you not have "time"?
BB: oh, because (sounding very casual here)....things I have to do....
Me: (snorting again) uh huh. such as...?
BB: oh.....cleaning my toy room...
Me: (I am now full out laughing at him...he has NEVER IN HIS LIFE been pressed for time to clean ANYTHING, and usually getting him to pick up after himself is like inflicting serious torture) You're afraid of being late to clean your toyroom??? (more flat out laughing) yeah, I don't think so.
now, just to make myself sound a bit like a good mother, we did have a nice, serious conversation about swimming in the deep end, and how it was ok to be scared, and how I was proud of him no matter what, etc etc. And the next day during lessons he would have totally refused to go in the deep end again but for the fact that his class didn't do it.
And we still went for donuts (phew).
1 comment:
LOL! Even funnier in written form, and the ending was classic. Love it. Good times.
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