This is the Tricky Part

I find there is a delicate balance home-schooling the kids and giving them enough freedom to wade out into the world on their own. Letting go is a scary thing for parents. I am occasionally reminded of this during swimming lessons.

I am still dealing with Izzy fighting me over getting in the pool. We are making a little progress. Watching Alex in class, however, is quite an experience. I often need to remind myself that he's fine, even enjoying himself but there are moments I want to jump up and tell those people to bring my kid out of the pool.

Every class they seem to venture further into the deep end. I realize this is on purpose. Still, it is hard to watch a boy who is a beginning swimmer, at best, jump into an area that is clearly above his head when the instructor is not quite in arms reach. In fact, last class they were 3/4 of the way to the other side when Alex had to jump in and swim to them. He flailed a bit. He looked stressed which was probably more his determined under pressure expression, swallowed a fair bit of water and looked pretty exhausted. It was so hard to see him struggling. But I sat there, literally biting my tongue, shouting in my head, 'okay - grab him now!' - waiting for him to reach his teacher before he drowned.

He did, of course, reach the teacher. She was so genuinely thrilled when he made it to her that even I was touched. They gave each other a high five. Alex's grin took over his entire face (when he wasn't coughing up water). He was so proud of himself, as he should have been. He did it! He swam 3/4 of the way across the pool in water well over his head. He overcame his own fears, pushed himself when he could have just as easily given up and accomplished this major milestone.

Like I said, it is so hard to watch them struggle but the pride in seeing them succeed at something they did completely on their own is exhilarating. So proud! And so not looking forward to going through this all over again next week.