Losing my baby...

For about a year, my youngest son and I have been taking swimming lessons together. Well, actually I had my lessons 30 years ago, but anyway... He's 3-1/2 and had been watching his elder siblings in the pool for a couple of years as they learned and he decided that he wanted to swim too.

My wife and I had made a decision when our kids were very young, that they would be required to take swimming lessons until they learned how to save themselves, but that after that, it would be their choice to continue as a sport. My oldest two took lessons together and after conquering the initial fear, went on to be very strong swimmers, outpacing the rest of their class. They weren't the most graceful, or technical swimmers, but they were fast! When they got to a point where it became too much of a chore for them, they decided that they were done. Keeping our word, we allowed them to move on to other sports - she to Tae Kwon Do and he to soccer.

My youngest had the opportunity to start with an AquaTots program where the kids were still too young to manage on their own and so the parents had, er um, got to be in the pool with them. It was more of an exposure type of class. Lost of singing silly songs, and playing games to get the kids used to being in the water. Not a lot of focus on the swimming itself.

Having watched his siblings and the kids in the other classes that go on at the other end of the pool at the same time, my youngest decided that he wanted to swim -- not just play games. Last session I began really working on his swimming with him. While my wife and older two watched from the bleachers, the two of us braved the "swim-team cold" water for an hour. Going through his "independence stage" at the same time as learning to swim really helped him I think. By the end of last month he was swimming, by himself, across the entire width of a high school pool! And he's not four years old yet! His ambition, motivation, and independence really improved and he was showing signs that he didn't really need me in there with him anymore. The instructor was very impressed with his ability and helped me challenge him.

At the end of last month, we decided that he was good enough to be in the "Level 1/2" class for the next session and began to talk up the "big boy" class he was going to be in all by himself -- and that Daddy got to watch from the side of the pool now...

Then it was all talk, but he ate it up! "I'm gonna be in a Big Boy swimming class, and Daddy doesn't even get to come in with me," he'd say proudly. I was glad he was showing such a positive attitude about it, but he'd slipped back before when we'd prepped him with things like this before. I wasn't sure this would stick. He just seemed too pumped up about it.

Well, my little baby boy doesn't need me anymore. We got there and he jumped in all by himself. He swam with his face in the water (I'd struggled to get him to blow bubbles until not too long ago it seems). He jumped off the diving board -- several times (another real struggle last session). He did want me to go over to the board with him, but when the instructor asked him if he wanted me to hold his finger while he walked to the end of the platform, but I say "no", softly as he kept on walking straight to the end of the board and just jumped in. Hardly a hesitation. At the end of the class he wanted to jump in and touch the bottom with his "toesies."

It was clear that 1) he no longer needed my support in this part of his life, 2) he was happy in this element, and 3)was no longer my little baby. He was a "big boy" now...

He did tell me tonight as I kissed him goodnight, "I love you Daddy. You're my best Daddy ever..."