9 Feet

Over the weekend, my six year-old daughter E went to her friend’s older sister’s birthday party. The family is always really thoughtful and they let their other child invite their friends for any gatherings so everyone can have a good time. E was really excited to go and even though she was a bit exhausted and sick during the week, she was fine the day of. I didn’t sleep almost the whole night and I was exhausted, but seeing how excited E was made me rally and take her out.

When we got to the pool, it was a new environment. The pool was much deeper than the pool usually swims in. There were places where this pool was 3 feet deep, 5 feet deep, and 9 feet deep. It was all along the same side of the pool and depending on how far you were swimming, it got really deep really quickly. I have never seen E swim around open water before. Although she has been taking swim lessons, it made me nervous when we first got there.

After we found her friends, she ended up jumping right in and swimming around. I was watching her like a hawk to make sure she was doing fine (especially because the lifeguard were watching so many people in this huge pool and they had socks on). E and her friend ended up swimming around excitedly and I was surprised how comfortable they were in the open water. They would also climb up on the edge and jump into the pool while spinning around doing a full 360. Safe to say they were almost too comfortable.

The kids ended up all swimming over and back where the 9 feet area was. I asked E if she could touch the bottom of the pool there and she said she had done it already. I was watching and didn’t see her do it. Maybe she touched the floor of the 5 foot area that blurred with the 9 foot area when she jumped in the pool a few times. I asked her whether that’s the case and she was adamant it was the 9 feet section. Then I wanted her to show me.

E ended up taking a huge breath and swimming all the way down to touch the floor. The then swam up and surfaced with the biggest smile. I couldn’t believe she actually did it and she was so confident in her swimming ability. I gave her a huge high five and she played in the pool a lot longer afterwards while touching the floor of the 9 feet section a few more times. I guess all those swim lessons are paying off and the more comfortable I saw E, the more comfortable I felt as a parent letting go a bit more (while just keeping a small watchful eye on her).