Our girls are in swimming lessons this summer, and are enjoying it to varying degrees. The oldest has discovered her gills, the middle one is getting there, and the youngest is convinced that land animals were meant to stay there.
About all the instructor can do with her without causing a melt down is dip her ear in the water. He’ll do this several times at each of her turns, but she’s begun dictating terms, letting him know exactly how many times he may dip her royal ear below the surface.
While he held her from behind, she held up three fingers, the back of her hand toward him. First she held down her thumb and pinkie. Then she decided to down-graded his privileges from three to one, leaving only her middle finger on display for him and any other swimmers or instructors in the vicinity.
The poor guy promptly, but gently, pushed her hand down into the water to hide it. Then he side glanced at me with a half smile. When he saw mine in return, he busted into a grin.
“Don’t take it personally!” I called to him.
I’m not sure those guys get paid enough.
Motherhood and Martial Arts 
Haha, the innocence of children. Or at least we hope the act stemmed from innocence. 😉
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Yes, she had no clue what that meant. Silly kid. That poor guy. If you could have seen his face as he was trying to get her hand down…. Haha.
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Those sound like great swimming lessons. My older brother taught me how to swim by shoving me into the deep end. I think he still has the scar where I expressed my displeasure at the procedure…
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Oh my gosh! Haha! 🙂 Sounds like your gesture was far more lasting than what my daughter did.
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LOL. I have tears in my eyes while reading this. So funny. You couldn’t script this stuff any better.
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Kids are great for giving us a laugh.
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They definitely don’t get paid enough
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Agreed.
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It sounds like she’ll be swimming in no time. Well, maybe it will be some time.
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I’m betting on some time.
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Cute! It would’ve been hilarious as a stealthy way for her to give him such a message, which however would’ve required a good deal of foreknowledge & forethought.
By now I’ve forgotten what originally brought me here, but it’s likely to have been the kids shown here — http://users.bestweb.net/~robgood/lather.htm (when BestWeb finishes their RAID cleanup). I wondered of them at that age, between the bubble baths (their mother parking them there where due to the layout of the house she could watch them from her desk) & swimming at the YMCA, why they ever bothered to dry off.
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How convenient that she could watch them from her desk!
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I never learned to swim and I remember my first sports day where I had to enter a race. I told them I didn’t ‘do’ swimming but they didn’t believe me. They ended up having to pull me out of the water. Oh dear, I never had to enter a race again after that 😉
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Well, hey then. Maybe it was all worth it! 😉
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And you didn’t film it? lol 😉 Kids make life awesome!! My grandfather retired as a lifeguard for the city of Miami. (Miami Beach.) He taught my brothers to swim and they did, like fish. Me…I can keep myself from drowning and that’s about all. Which is why I live in the mountains. ha ha. Loved this post and sharing it now. 😉 xoxo
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I wish I could have filmed that. Oh well. I can only doggie-paddle. My 10 y.o. has already surpassed my abilities.
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Haha poor instructor, Betsy! My eldest is in swimming class, and I have to say that those instructors can be some of the most patient people!
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Oh, no joke. That must be part of their training!
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It pretty much is, if you count experience as training. It’s a lot of what I’ve had to practice coaching children in football. It’s a little different in a team sport because you can shift your att’n from one individual to another, but the tendency is to make it easy on yourself by giving the most att’n to the fastest learners, when really it’s the ones who are behind that you need to focus on the most.
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Oh, that would have been hysterical and embarrassing for me at the same time. 🙂 I can do the basics, but I’ve never taken to the water the water my siblings do. Just one more way I’m different from them!
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argh! the WAY my siblings do!
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Ha! I knew what you meant. I do that all the time!
Wait, aren’t you a writer or something! 😉
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Not different, just unique, right? I’m the black sheep of my family, so yeah for us!
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I am a new visitor to your blog. I am enjoying. My 3 beautiful little girls have since become 3 beautiful women with families of their own. The stories only get better.
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We both have three daughters. How great! Thanks for finding me!
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Bahaha!!! That is great! 🙂 Sounds like the swimming instructor is dealing with the whole thing quite well! Hehe!
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More recently he was asked to i.d. a strange object at the bottom of the pool. He got a closer look and then called, “Yep! Everybody out!” It was a poo. Fortunately, not from one of my kids!
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Oh no! Poor guy. Hope he gets some nice gift cards for the parents at the end of this swim season. Sounds like he certainly deserves them! ;-)\
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I was considering that. I’ll bet to him, though, identifying excrement is all a part of a day’s work! Haha.
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